Shichinin no Kaosu
by Madhog thy Master
Summary: Once upon a time... Seven warriors decided to do battle against an evil beyond imagination... This is their story. This is their tragedy... Based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.
1. Prologue

**"_The Servers are the Seven Chaos… Chaos is Power… Power is enriched by the Heart…"_**

**-Ancient echidna litany.**

* * *

Once upon a time… In an unspecified time of an unspecified place…

Seven warriors… Seven unique beings gifted by powers and abilities superior to many… Decided to engage battle against an ominous evil who threatened the peace of a small village in the middle of nowhere…

3 of them survived…

4 of them died…

This is their story… A tale of unspoken tragedies… A tale of Suffering and Death… Of Honor and Bravery… Of Courage and Cowardly…

Of Love and Hate.

A legend, a myth just like others… Nothing more. Nothing less.

This is the tale… Of the Seven Chaos Warriors… The Seven Kaosu.

* * *

**SHICHININ NO KAOSU**

* * *

**Prologue.**

* * *

In this part of the land, nothing usually happens.

Sat on the borders of a small lake in the middle of the Mystic Ruins forest, stood a very huge anthropomorphic purple, black striped cat with long downward ears and a not particularly clever expression.

He was known by his fellow villagers as Biggu za Kyatto, due to his noticeable stature… He was also considered the village fool because of his un-mistakable slowness. Biggu liked this place, his own secret place… He would often come here and entertain himself with his favorite activity (his only activity), fishing.

He didn't mind what the others would think about him as long as he could come here and fish. The cat was very good at it. He and his loyal bamboo fishing line were about to surpass their personal record of 100 trout in less than two hours when…

His feline ears caught a rather disturbing noise… A loud metallic noise not so distant from his position.

Pushed by the proverbial feline curiosity, Biggu decided to investigate the source of such unfamiliar peace-breaker… He slowly rose from his seat and, ever so slowly, started to walk over the direction where he heard that noise.

In the outskirts of the forest, two peculiar figures were observing a small rural village in the distance… Or should I say, scanning.

These two figures were not regular living creatures… They were humanoid robots.

"Scanning complete. Results: Knothole village. Strategic value: high. Defenses: inconsistent."

Said one of the two bots with its emotionless voice.

"Designated attack: two weeks from now. When barley will be harvested." The other one replied.

"Affirmative."

With that said, the two androids left the county.

A very frightened Biggu came out from the woods he was hidden… Terror depicted on his face. Despite what many pretended to know about his personality… This cat was not half as fool as anybody thought.

One of the few positive things he was known for, was his honesty… Biggu used to be a simple enough person to never mutter a single lie in his entire life… Therefore, when he rushed towards the Knothole village, his hometown, and practically yelled to everybody who could ear, about the impending assault… He found no problem in being believed.

In this part of the land, nothing usually happens… This was NOT one of those times.

Panic was the key word. Fear and horror, too.

They knew who or what those robots were…

They heard the rumors… Voices of entire villages reduced to ashes by their blind wrath… Voices of innocent people turned into robotic slaves deprived of their own mind…

Violence and Death were the words commonly associated to this infernal army… And to its leader…

Dokuta Egguman… The last human alive, the one who swore to conquer this world and forge his own Order… An Order made of metal and misery…

Other's misery.

The history of Mankind, as far as the few possessed informations would tell, was bound in blood… More blood than anybody could ever imagine…

And apparently, even the last of them hadn't had enough of it.

And they, the Knothole villagers, would have been the next few victims in a very long line.

An emergency reunion was been held inside the chief's hut…

Knothole was just a small rural town, made with poorly built wood huts and inhabit by simpleton farmers, fishers, and their families… All anthropomorphic animals or Mobians, as they chose to call themselves. They didn't hold anything besides their lives and their precious barley. Their only guilt, was the fact that their humble home lay on a strategic point between Egguman's owned lands and the city of Station Square… A technological paradise that happened to be part of the human's interests.

Eventually, the town's council reached a decision… They needed protection. They needed to hire someone to defend their village from this threat.

They needed… Kaosu warriors.

In this troubled age, Kaosu used to be the most skilled fighters money could buy… Unfortunately, these villagers didn't have the required figure for a Kaosu's paycheck… They were poor, simple people, after all.

The solution? To find some warrior desperate enough to fight for a bowl of rice and a place to rest… Some very hungry warrior… And there was only one nearby place where they could have been able to find the desired help… The very same city Dokuta Egguman wanted so bad, Station Square.

A small party of three people was chose for this task…

The first was the very same individual who spotted the robotic scouts in the Mystic Ruins, Biggu za Kyatto. The second was one of the most prominent and strongest younglings in the county, a young red and yellow armadillo by the name of Maiti za Arumajiro. And finally, the third member, who offers herself as a volunteer (despite the general disapproval), Emi Rozu, a pink hedgehog girl who wanted nothing more than an excuse to leave the boring place she was born in.

Needless to say, an entire village's hopes lay on these three person's back… Failure meant demise.

* * *

Station Square was a really big city, especially for three seemingly lost peasants. Its buildings were humongous and covered in metal… Being rural simpletons, the view of such ominous constructions inevitably sent shivers on their collective spine. Emi Rozu, however, didn't feel intimidated by such spectacle, she was excited, to say the very least. Right now, the three of them were in the city's main square, desperately trying to hire some Kaosu to fight a suicidal battle for a poor paycheck… They weren't lucky.

"Stay away from me, you miserable peasants!" Said a very mean looking crocodile Kaosu to his two unwanted interlocutors right before leaving them behind.

Maiti exchanged a defeated look with Biggu and sighed.

"We'll never find anyone… We're doomed." He muttered in defeat while sitting dramatically on the ground.

Biggu just shrugged and didn't seem faze at all. He lowered himself to his companion.

"Maybe Emi will have more luck." He tried to reassure but his slow talking only managed to irritate the armadillo even more… Then Maiti abruptly snapped.

"EMI!? WHERE THE HECK SHE WENT!!?"

* * *

Emi Rozu loved this city… Not anymore.

She was currently surrounded by a gang of nasty looking hyenas… Male hyenas, I should point.

She was a scared, little girl from outside the city, therefore naïve and easily gullible, she was cute and young and she wore a dirty looking kimono… In other words, she practically had the phrase "I want to be gangbanged here and now, no jutsu" written on her body…

Worthless to say, she was utterly terrified. She was trying so hard not to cry and look strong… To no avail.

Luckily for her, someone decided to come in her help… Someone very fast. So fast, actually, that the hyenas didn't even have the time to notice what attacked them… And I didn't even have the time to write it.

Within a blink of an eye… Emi's eye… It was all set and done. All the brutes and would be rapists lay on the ground, beaten and badly battered… But not dead. That was not her savior's style.

In the middle of that improvised battlefield, a lone figure stood tall… A cobalt blue male hedgehog with long smooth, downward quills on the back of his head and shoulders… And enchanting emerald green eyes.

The girl found herself instantly kidnapped in his amazing gaze.

He spoke.

"Are you okay?"

She slowly nodded, still entranced in his eyes… He felt the awkwardness of the moment but didn't give it so much importance… He didn't really care of anything, actually. He saved this girl only because he happened to be around, out of pure instinct.

He was about to leave.

"Wait!" Emi suddenly yelled.

He turned and looked at her form, once again.

"Who are you?" She asked her savior… A fair enough question, indeed.

His stone-like glare fixed itself on the younger girl in front of him… And answered.

"My name… Is Sonikku za Hejjihoggu." And then, he just went away at unearthly speed, leaving a bewildered and fascinated girl in his dust…

A lamp turned on in Emi's head as she smiled… She's found the perfect kind of warrior her group was looking for.

The first Kaosu.


	2. Sonikku za Hejjihoggu

**"_A Kaosu warrior has to be loyal only to himself and in what he/she chooses to believe… Because the only known way to survive in this world, is to find a personal Sense over the Chaos of our existence."_**

**-From "Kaosu Jutsu" (the Kaosu warrior's Code)**

* * *

**1.**

**Sonikku za Hejjihoggu**

* * *

_**The way of the Kaosu has many paths… And no path at all.**_

_**The goal of a warrior taught into this creed, is not to achieve control over the Chaos… But to be part of it… To be part of the endless possibilities of Life… To ultimately unify himself with such cluster in a more profound way… In order to find the Truth.**_

_**And what is the Truth?**_

_**The one the individual chooses to believe in. That's the only truth really needed in this life. What may or may not come in the Afterlife, it is not our concern…**_

_**The only thing certain in existence… Is that we all are destined to die. We are not bound to know when or where that would happen nor we should care about it… Our only concern should be to live our lives the way we want to…**_

_**And we need to be strong in order to achieve this otherwise privileged status.**_

_**Sometimes… We also need to be firm… And cruel. That is way the Kaosu Order has been created.**_

_**An Order (oh, what a sweet paradox) of Chaotic assassins… Chosen individuals without a patria, unbound from the common people's problems and their common lives… Warriors who's only purpose is to live for themselves… And for the paths they would choose…**_

_**Due to this misunderstood philosophy, most of them inevitably became mercenaries… Ronin… Who would sell themselves to the best offer.**_

_**And some other were even blinded by someone else's creed, deluding themselves into believe they chose to follow such creed, in the first place… And dyeing in fruitless wars for the wrong causes… Not their owns.**_

_**In the end, no one seemed to understand the true meaning of being a Kaosu… **_

_**Of being powerful enough to be free... Or at least, this is what I believe.**_

_**Or better, this is what I choose to believe… And, hopefully, this is what I'll be able to teach to my apprentice… And again, hopefully, this is what he will may or may not choose to believe as his own creed.**_

_**May Chaos be with me in this chosen path.**_

**_Signed: __Kaosu Master, Fangu za Sunaipa._**

* * *

**The Green Hill Zone… 10 years ago.**

Hidden in the untainted beauty of the woods, lay a peculiar building… A dojo…

A Kaosu Order's dojo, for the sake of clarity.

On its entrance, a lone figure stood still in silence and concentration… A unique individual, by the looks of it. He was a male Mobian with purple fur, white on the chest, long wolf ears pressed under a fancy canvas hat. He wore a golden kimono, the type of vest only the wisest and strongest Kaosu Masters could wear… His legs were crossed and his eyes closed, he was meditating.

He stood like a statue, completely unfazed by his own surroundings… As if he was in another world, a world of his own, alienated from the harshness of reality… As far as it could have been considered such, since the Ultimate Truth of existence wasn't bound to be known by mortals.

The shade produced by the oriental-like roof of his secluded home, partially covered his form, gifting him with an almost sacral stature.

All was silent and peaceful… Until a small, insignificant, noise managed to get caught by the being's trained ears.

He smirked while quickly moving his body to his left, barely avoiding a sudden attack from above the dojo's very roof.

The seemingly younger attacker rose from the ground and darted towards the not at all surprised veteran, who avoided and countered all of his weak offenses with ease. He then had enough of it and grounded his "adversary" with an S.T.O.

Without the shade of his house over him, a few other details about his aspect could be seen… He had a long broken weasel-like tail, a pointed muzzle and a huge fang leaned out from the left side of his mouth… And deep, pitch black eyes.

He grinned, revealing the rest of his lesser sharp teeth.

"I see you have improved." He said.

"Not enough, apparently… Sensei Fangu." The other sorely replied.

The sensei helped his young apprentice to recover his standing position…

He was a 15 years old, cobalt blue hedgehog by the name of Sonikku.

He wore white gloves and modern white/red sneakers on his feet. He had a distaste over dresses, that's why he refused to wear other things besides these ones and his own fur… This kid had an attitude and his own ideas, that is why Fangu chose to take him under his wing and teach him about the way of the Kaosu…

Which has many paths… And no path at all.

It's been a couple of years now, since this teenager came to his dojo and practically begged him to be his apprentice… Or his padawan, as the hog jokingly put it… A joke that wasn't understood, by the way.

Fangu saw the sheer talent this kid possessed… As his name suggested, he had speed and reflexes way beyond normality. The boy told him that he wanted to utilize his abilities for the benefit of his people…

So young…

So full of ideals and hopes…

So determined to fulfill his own goals…

Fangu couldn't possibly refuse him.

Two years went away from that time and the boy had improved, as Fangu could say, although he still had a long path to overcome before being able to actually be a challenge for his sensei… And both of them knew it.

"Let's have a break, shall we?" Fangu za Sunaipa suggested.

"Definitely…" Confirmed the younger Mobian.

They both sat across the marvelous garden the older sensei possessed… Specifically, on its small lake's borders.

"Sensei?"

"What is it, Sonikku?"

"Is there a Truth out there or it is all random Chaos? I mean, does Life have a purpose?"

Fangu looked his student in the eyes… He saw his emerald green eyes shining in admiration and eager anticipation for his eventual answer… It was not an exaggeration to state that this kid worshipped his teacher… Or Jedi Master, as he would often refer to him… Again, another un-understood joke.

Fangu sighed, then answered.

"What you think is truthful, is the Truth and whatever…" His own kind of answer.

Sonikku tilted his head on one side, clearly confused and baffled by such simple answer… He's always seen his sensei as the keeper of all this world's truths, the wisest person on the planet…

The older Kaosu noticed the uneasiness of his honorary student and so, he add a fundamental line after his previous answer…

"Sometimes, the best answers are the simplest… Ponder over this, young one, and you may find your own path... Or one of many, for that matter." He ultimately remarked before regaining his meditation pose…

Sonikku was still baffled about the way his master dismissed him but he eventually convinced himself into being patient… Therefore he didn't ask him about this topic, again.

* * *

Night overtook.

Lay on his bed, a certain young blue hedgehog couldn't sleep… His mind was tormented by too many questions and too many doubts.

He questioned the Way of the Kaosu… Simply because it wasn't a straight one.

He doubted he could ever become one… No, he feared he was not good or determined enough to even aspire at such honor…

It has always been his dream, to become a Kaosu warrior and live his life as free as the wind blew… To run away, from city to city, fighting the bad guys and protecting the weak. It has been his ambition since his now long lost parents told him about the mythical Kaosu Wars…

In which, as the legends went, an army of only 300 powerful Kaosu has been able to counter and defeat 1.000.000 Persians… Or something like that. He didn't have a very good memory about bedtime stories…

But he do had hopes. To become a Kaosu wasn't just a childish caprice… For him, it was his life mission and nothing less…

That's why he feared the possibility of not being adequate for such important role.

He sighed and shook his head. He wasn't going to let this negative thoughts to get the better of him… He didn't believe in Destiny, but he do believed in his own potentials… And apparently, Fangu too.

A crash could be heard from the Kaosu's room.

Sonikku's eyes widened in surprise and sudden fright. Within a blink of an eye he was on his feet and with his trademark speed, darted towards Fangu's room.

When he entered the room, a few peculiar things caught his attention…

The mess…

The broken glass…

The blood…

The corpse…

And the assassin.

The moonlight was quite luminous on that cold night… Therefore he could see everything with daylight precision… There he stood, lifeless on the ground, covered in his own blood, still spreading from the deadly wound… His master's cadaver, freshly killed.

His murderer was still there, immobile and still like a demonic statue of a devil, admiring his work… Breathing and enjoying his own creation… Or destruction, I should say.

Sonikku's mind was blank, to say the very least, incapable of understanding the current situation or maybe, already denying its happening. He felt numbness all over his body and mind, tragically alienated from his material appearances… Almost as if he was watching the entire scene from another planet… Far, far away from that gruesome, scarring scene.

Slowly… The killer's head turned and his cold blooded gaze fixed itself over the shocked rodent.

As soon as he felt the stranger's look over him, the numbness abruptly ceased… Fear took over and he couldn't help but shake in terror as his own eyes posed themselves onto the cold, vindictive and full of hatred glare of Fangu's executioner…

And he could clearly see his face… His form… Everything of him… Every single physical detail that would have remained impressed in his mind and soul as long as he would have lived… And perhaps, even beyond…

For the assassin, was none other than his older brother…

Shado za Hejjihoggu.

He was almost a carbon copy of the blue hedgehog, except for his fur color… Void black with red stripes over his quills, which were not fully downward like Sonikku's own but pointed at their extremities… He had a white muzzle of fur on the chest and, like his younger sibling, he only wore snickers and gloves.

Other two things were quite noticeable about the black hedgehog's appearance… His rage red eyes… And the crimson liquid on his aforementioned quills.

The two siblings looked at each other for quite a time, before the older eventually diverted his eyes from him, almost in shame, one could say…

Then, before the mentally scarred blue hedgehog could do or say anything… Shado disappeared into nothingness, leaving him with the only company of an unjustified freshly killed corpse… His master's body…

His surrogate father's body.

On that night… After all the cries and tears, that were inevitably shed, subsided, Sonikku za Hejjihoggu became a Kaosu warrior… In the very same moment that he chose his own path… In very same moment that he found his own personal truth… A new personal life mission…

Vengeance.

And he would have been loyal to such creed until death… His own or his brother's.

* * *

**Present time.**

"How did you manage to find me?"

Maiti was taken aback, his words suddenly froze in his throat because of impending shyness. Biggu… Well, he was just himself. The only one who managed to find the necessary strength to actually answer such harshly pronounced question was, ironically enough, the former damsel in distress in person… Emi Rozu.

"A very fast, cobalt blue hedgehog isn't something that passes unobserved… We just asked around and everybody told us we would have certainly found you here." She said with a matter-of-factly expression and vocal tone.

Sonikku couldn't help but smirk… She was right all along. He's been around this city for about a month, often coming into this rotten pub for a good old warm bowl of sakè… To eventually drown his sorrows in.

He took another sip of his sakè, as if they weren't even there.

Suddenly, Maiti was reminded of his role as leader of this small party and that the future of his own village lay on his shoulders… Therefore, he finally found the courage to speak.

He dropped on his knees in the classical begging position.

"Please, oh please, noble Kaosu… Our village is in peril and we desperately need the help of your amazing abilities… The same abilities that saved this foolish girl's life."

Emi wasn't pleased by that last sentence… Even Biggu could notice.

Sonikku just raised an eyebrow after witnessing such pathetic performance… He could not blame him, though. He used to be a more perceptive person than he looked.

"Who's threatening you?" He asked, almost absent mindedly.

"Dokuta Egguman." Biggu answered before any of the others could stop him.

A dead silence fell in the pub, as anyone inside fixed their own baffled gazes over the three villagers… Who were immediately frozen on their spot, fearing for the worst… Except Biggu, of course.

Then… The silence was broken by an improvise laughter. All the pub's costumers (including Maiti and the others) turned their collective gazes over the source of such hilarity.

The noisy Rapp Scallion was a red echidna with long dreadlock-like quills, menacingly huge spiky fists, a pointed muzzle and cerulean eyes… He had a half moon tattoo on his chest and he was obviously drunk like an ape.

"Oh oh oh oh… You're soooooo fucked!" He started yelling. "So definitely, atrociously, uber fucked!!! No jutsu…" He continued. "There's no way in hell you're going to survive this… And you deserve no less, you motherfucking farmers!"

His attitude was really starting to piss the "what-he-said" farmers in the pub… Even the usually placid Biggu wasn't pleased by this cursing-like machine of reddish drunken torment.

"You can bet your ass on it… 'Cause no one is going to save yours!" The echidna retorted.

"I'll do it."

And once again, in less than 5 minutes, silence overtook as the collective gazes (even the red one's own) diverted over the ever so calm and relaxed form of the blue Kaosu-hog.

"What in the holy shitting burning hell did you just say?" The knuckle-head asked, apparently not enough drunk to not being bewildered.

"I said, I'll do it… Because I choose to." Sonikku calmly replied, letting his words getting sank inside the minds of the three shocked villagers.

"Are you retarded or what?" The echidna insisted. "This is freaking madness!!!"

"Madness? THIS. IS. KAOSUUUUU!!!!" Sonikku yelled in his unwanted interlocutor's face.

The dreadlocked thug just frowned and scowled… Then he exited the building for going Chaos knew were.

Both Maiti and Emi couldn't possibly be more happy and started worshipping him as he was some kind of a messiah… Which made him feel awkward and almost regretful of his decision.

Biggu… was just Biggu.

Why did Sonikku accepted such foolish and suicidal offer, you may ask? And, as usual, I shall respond you in a disfiguring, riddling way… There is not a straight answer for this question. Perhaps he did it because he once wanted to become a Kaosu in order to protect the weak from the bad ones (even though, he was THAT naïve no more), or maybe he did it because Dokuta Egguman was the responsible for his family's death and he wanted to avenge them…

Who knew? Not me, for certain.

The only thing clear was… That it has been his own choice… His own will.

And that was all that mattered.

Deep down, Sonikku felt that his master, wherever he may be right now, was proud of him… Or so he thought.

* * *

One man alone could not win a war… That was sadly obvious.

After burying his sensei and leaving the dojo, Sonikku dedicated his life to the research of his murderous brother… His will of revenge inevitably brought him in the middle of numerous conflicts and wars… Wars that he would lose every time… Conflicts in which he would witness the laceration and violent death of living , breathing beings like him… Sonikku had come to know the real harshness of this world. A world that had no room for the weak. That's why the weak needed protection…

His fighting years taught him a lot of interesting things about battle strategy and troop recruiting… Two things that would have surely come in handy, especially the latter one, since, as it has been said before, he could not hope to battle against an unspecified robotic army all by himself… Other warriors were needed and quickly.

But how could anyone, in his rightful mind, accept to do such crazy thing for such poor paycheck… That's the exact same question that Sonikku asked this particular young individual who, one day, decided to approach him in the very same pub he was first found… Which had become his "recruiting post", by the way.

"Why should I do it, you ask? I'm a freshly named Kaosu who just wants to prove himself on the battle field… I'm pleading you to accept my services, Sonikku-san."

"Sonikku-san" didn't like this situation… Not at all. In front of his sitting position, lay this young lad, probably on his early teenage years… Therefore a very young one. A child with still all of his life forward him, who was asking to be part of a potentially suicidal mission like this one… And the thing that deeply worried the hedgehog, was that he actually meant every single word he muttered.

This boy was serious as hell and his big blue eyes showed an uncommon determination for people of his age… Those were the eyes of a veteran…

Just who was this boy? Where did he come from?

The boy in question was kneeling in front of the elder in a very respectful way… He was a vulpine, a golden-orange fox with azure eyes and three long bangs on his forehead. He wore a blue kimono, the kind of vest that belonged to aristocratic families, and it covered all of his little body, including the tail…

There was something about him that truly disturbed the older Kaosu. And it bothered him the fact that he couldn't quite determine what that thing would be.

"What is your name, again?" He asked.

"Mairusu Paua of the Paua dynasty. I'm the last of its bloodline… And the only one left… Alive." He replied, trying to hint a sudden sense of inadequacy.

The Paua dynasty… A legendary bloodline of fox warriors who made its name notorious in almost every part of the land… There were stories about them… And most of them happened to be quite gruesome.

They were known for their unjustified cruelty and sadism over their multiple enemies… An attitude that almost brought them to their ultimate demise when their adversaries' descendants almost caused their extinction some years ago.

Their feared actions over the ages made them known as the mythical Demon foxes of ancient folklore…

Everybody knew them as… The Kitsunes.

To tell the truth, all Sonikku could see right now, was an under aged child who didn't deserve anymore sufferance than he'd already endured… The hedgehog's answer did not admit replies…

"No."

The kit seemed slightly taken aback by his decision and disappointment didn't late to make itself known in the fox's body language.

"Please… Let me stay and prove myself… Let me redeem my family's name!" He practically begged.

So, that was it. He felt he needed to do it… Because of his family's past. The blue warrior couldn't help but feel sympathetic over the boy's troubles… Then, something rather unexpected happened… Something that managed to change Sonikku's mind... Or part of it.

"Ehi, you heard Sonikku-san, you're too young!" Said Maiti who was in there along side the hedgehog while Biggu and Emi were out, looking for some other Kaosu…

Maiti committed the huge error of putting his hand on one of the kit's shoulder… Mairusu's eyes widened for a short instant and his breath became heavier… Within a blink of an eye, he took Maiti's hand and, with a judo-like maneuver, threw him over the opposite wall of the pub…

When Mairusu recovered his senses and noticed what he's just done, he immediately rushed over the side of the comically turned upside down armadillo and asked for his forgiveness… 25 consecutive times.

To say that the blue hedgehog was baffled at such view, would have been a major understatement… Now he knew for certain, there was definitely more of this child that met the eye.

Eventually, he decided to take the little guy under his wing and train him… Although he still was firm on his earlier decision.

Mairusu wasn't going to fight this battle… But he could help them in finding some other recruit.

In the vulpine's head, that was a half victory as he realized he still had a chance to impress his would be sensei and convince him to let him join the party.

Later on, he was introduced to Biggu and Emi… As soon as his gaze pose itself over the young girl who happened to be of his own age, his heart skipped a couple of beats.

_**She's so… Wow!**_ He thought… Or better, some inner part of him thought.

* * *

The day after, a rather interesting development occurred… A very good looking one, for that matter… In the form of a white female bat with a slender physic and a provocative half metallic, half tight suit vest that made her seem like an Amazon queen.

Needless to say, all the male in the pub (including Biggu) were absolutely entranced over her, let's say, charming qualities… Emi just grunted, she already didn't like her.

Maiti was on the verge of a saliva waterfall…

Biggu was about to bleed from his nose…

Mairusu was just blushing madly…

Sonikku tried very hard (no pun intended) to overcome his initial shock as he, very knight-likely, presented himself and the rest of the group to her.

She just giggled in response… And Maiti had to fight the urge of fainting. Emi grunted even more… No one noticed.

After all the presentations were done, she finally introduced herself.

"My name is Ruju za Batto… And I would like to join your little sweet cause, if you don't mind."

Nobody minded… Except Emi, of course.

And so… The second Kaosu has appeared.


	3. Ruju za Batto

**"_A Kaosu warrior should not be blinded by materialistic interests… Because, in this chaotic world, the line between Free Will and Addiction, can be very subtle."_**

**-From "Kaosu Jutsu" (the Kaosu warrior's Code)**

* * *

**2.**

**Ruju za Batto**

* * *

_**Materialism… Some say, it is the drug of the fool… Some other say, it's a thing people can't help but have, it's one of the pathologies that makes us what we are… Imperfect beings.**_

_**To me, Materialism is just a word without a real meaning… I prefer to call it… Desire.**_

_**From Desire comes Ambition… From Ambition comes Determination… From Determination comes Will…**_

_**And my Will… My Life mission… Is to pursuit the goal I decided to follow, until the Old Lady would come and claim my soul.**_

_**They misunderstood my Passion for Addiction… I am not addicted... They can't just see this. I'm well aware of the risks in pursuing my ideal… Not only the spiritual ones (as the "Kaosu Jutsu" states) but the very physical ones…**_

_**I am what the so-called "honest" people call… A criminal. **_

_**I beg to differ from such hasty terminology… I, first and foremost, am a Kaosu… Who's just following his own ideals and goals, just as the Code suggested… And therefore, his own rules are more important then the common being's ones.**_

_**And yet, they dare to judge me… They dare to point their filthy fingers at me… Just who the heck they think they are? They're just a bunch of ignorant peasants who love to persecute the whom who do not see things their way.**_

_**And so… For the way I've chosen for myself, I'm considered a reject… How appropriate. We live in a chaotic and controversial world, indeed… Then again, aren't we bound to fight for what we believe?**_

_**And this, is exactly what I am… A fighter who shall defend his own right to believe in what he chooses to believe…**_

_**And I believe in thievery and the sheer beautifulness of jewels… Because this is who I am…A thief… **_

_**At least for this month. **_

_**Next time, I'll try the bounty hunter profession.**_

_**Signed: Kaosu thief, Fangu za Sunaipa.**_

* * *

**Emerald Hill Zone, 15 years ago.**

Over the past couple of decades, this land has suffered immense misery, as well as its own inhabitants…

To this very day, the once marvelous heaven known as Emerald Hill was nothing more than a pale shadow of its former self… A ghost, a rotten corpse, a cancer… A disfigured parody of everything barely lively… Ruined and mauled by the Four Horsemen themselves…

War.

Famine.

Pestilence.

Death.

This dead land has seen them all… On its barleys, on its cities… On its children.

It was an unfortunate routine of this chaotic world…

A conflict would explode somewhere for some unknown reason… Sides would be chosen… Men would be killed for an ideal they would be forced to believe… And children would follow suit.

Soldier kids… Heavily drugged soldier kids who would think of the war as a First Person Shooter videogame to play with friends through an On-Line connection… How macabre and pitiful.

After the war, somehow, ended… Despair and Famine were its descendants. Epidemic diseases didn't late to arrive and claim the lives of the eldest… Leaving the remaining children by their own.

This is what Emerald Hill had became… A giant, soulless orphanage inhabit by the young victims of an anonymous war for which no one would care about…

And of course, Life (what was left of it) was not easy… In such environment, the laws of the so-called democratic society were as worthless as a sack of swine's crap.

Jungle law would reign supreme. The stronger ones would eat the weaker…

Literally.

Famine can bring even the most rational individuals to their own primal instincts… to the feral beast that lies inside us all… The un-mistakable trace of what we all used to be before evolution came along…

Animals… Who would struggle in order to survive.

This was the environment She used to live in… Before being rescued by her savior…

It all happened in a normal day… As far as normal a day could have been around this zone… When the weird looking stranger with a funny looking hat arrived in Emerald Town… Or, as its current inhabitants used to call it, City of Sheet.

A childish name that couldn't possibly be more appropriate… Since hygiene was not exactly a priority… Not anymore, at least.

The town's soil was covered by partially eaten body now turned into food for maggots, blood and rotten organs, skeletons and… Random hills of sheet. The smell would have been unbearable for every common living being who would have come from the outside world… But not for this particular individual… Who happened to know first hand what a war can do to people.

Fangu za Sunaipa was known in his ambient as the Chaotic One… Because of his unique ability to find a new life mission almost every week, instead of choosing only one path and pursuit it the best way he could. Idealistically speaking, Fangu's path was every kind of path… And no one at all… The endless possibilities of Life.

He was seen by many as a nutcase… And by few, as the wisest individual who's ever walked on Earth. What did he think of himself, you may ask? He still had to decide it.

What was he doing in that forgotten wasteland?

For that week, Fangu happened to be a missionary… In his own way, of course. He decided to come here because he rightfully thought those kids desperately needed some help… Especially, the one he was looking for.

Amazingly enough, for the mess the place was, he immediately found her…

A cute little bat girl, no more than 8 years old, with pure white fur… A fallen angel inside this Hell. She was on the ground, hugging her knees, swinging back and forward… And crying… Softly and silently, as in fear to awake the Devil himself.

She looked shocked and confused, as far as Fangu could tell… She only wore an old smelly poncho… Probably taken from a corpse. Her soft and partially mauled body was exposed to the coldness of this world… Both literally and figuratively.

Her shining blue eyes were fixed over a peculiar scene not so distant from where she used to be…

A group of young Mobian hyenas, eating something… Or better, someone. This bat's older brother.

They would growl and snarl… They would bite and chew… They would fight each other for the bigger piece of meat, just like their feral ancestors would do…

The line between primal animals and evolved creatures, had no meaning in this place.

And yet… This little girl seemed so out of place… Her eyes, her body language, were the portrait of a well known emotion… An emotion often felt by non-feral beings…

Fear.

She grew up in this hellhole but she was not accustomed to it… She was the weakling of this jungle… Already destined to endure violent death.

But she could still be saved.

Slowly, Fangu reduced the distance between himself and the girl… Once he was just a few inches from her trembling form, she turned her head and looked up at him. She didn't try to escape or anything else… She just stood on her spot, already resigned to embrace her fate…

The fate of a prey… Her brother's fate.

Instead of eating her, this weird looking creature with a funny looking hat and a huge tooth, simply smiled at her… A reassuring, warm smile… Something that she didn't even know existed. Then, he offered his hand to her, never dropping the smile. She thought about it for a few minutes… She then eagerly took the stranger's gloved paw. In an instance, she was in Fangu's arms, feeling the comfortable warming sensation that another one's compassion brought to her cold body.

"What is your name, little girl?" He suddenly asked.

She tried to answer but the words were frozen in her throat. Fangu just smirked.

"Do not worry, little one. I have the perfect name for you… From this moment on, you'll be known as… Ruju za Batto." He said, faking an ominous tone in order to impress the little bat girl.

Her giggling reply confirmed the rightful choice of her name.

"Say… Would you like to become a jewels thief?" He suddenly (and randomly) asked.

She nodded, even though she had no clue of what jewels were… Yet.

"Good… Because I'll be a thievery teacher for the next 3 years… I'll make you a Kaosu thief, the best kind of burglar in the world!"

She giggled even more, before yawning and falling asleep inside Fangu's arms… She cuddled in his protective embrace, trying to find shelter from the cold weather.

And so, Ruju za Batto escaped Hell… Only to enter a whole new one…

The Outside World.

* * *

**Present time.**

"You do realize that you'll have to fight an army of deadly robots for practically nothing in return?"

She just shrugged and smiled her trademark seductive smile.

"What can I say? I'm a generous person…" She casually said.

_**With generous proportions!** _Every male in the pub thought.

_**Yeah… If you're an altruist, then I'm a dancing, polka dressed Leprechaun!** _A certain pink hedgehog thought.

"So… It is settled. You're our second Kaosu." The blue warrior stated, not hinting a sincere amount of amusement.

Maiti and Biggu started dancing like idiots for the joy. Emi just hmpfed. To her pleasure, she noticed that even that golden vulpine she just met, seemed to be a little concerned about this decision…

_**What was his name? Oh yes, Mairusu Paua.**_She said within herself. _**I can't believe he's a Kaosu warrior, he's so cute… **_Then she turned her head towards the older hedgehog. _**But not as my Sonikku!** _She blushed… She definitely had a crush for him, no doubts about it.

"Fantastic! I'll be in the nearby hotel for a while… Call me when you're ready to leave." With that said, the breath taking form of the Kaosu bat left the building… Right after blinking her left eye towards all the boys inside… Which almost caused a mass hysteria followed by multiple faints.

Sonikku, however, managed to maintain his very distinctive dignity… He had a very good reason for accepting this bat girl's help and not just because of the fact that they were desperate.

"Sensei?"

"We've already had this argument, Mairusu, I'm not your sensei… Just call me Sonikku, ok?" The blue hedgehog scolded.

The fox seemed to be hurt by such affirmation, he truly wanted to be this Kaosu's apprentice… He already idolized him, simply because of his bravery. He asked his question, anyway.

"S-Sonikku-san… I was just wondering… Why did you accept her services without even know if she had any real ability?" A smart question… Apparently, Smartness was one of this kid's best qualities.

Sonikku put on the classic "I know everything" kind of smile, before answering.

"She wore the official Kaosu thief vest… That was the only proof I needed."

"Kaosu thief? I've never heard of such Order…" The vulpine said, showing genuine curiosity in his eyes.

"I shall tell you about it… Everybody, gather around me, please."

Everybody did so, including Emi.

Sonikku began his tale.

* * *

_**The Kaosu Thievery Order used to be the great alternative of the Kaosu Order itself… The people who chose to become Kaosu thieves had been trained in the art of stealth techniques and sneaking tactical actions… Basically, they've been trained to be burglars… Or better, "plunder artists".**_

_**Unfortunately for them, the rise of Modern Society happened to be their downfall… Kaosu thieves were considered nothing more than vulgar criminals and the Order was shut down…**_

_**Despite that course of events, the Kaosu thieves didn't completely disappear… They only had to operate their profession in the darkness of the laws…**_

_**In other words… They're outlaws… At least for this society.**_

* * *

Everybody in the pub (villagers and other customers alike) awed in amazement… Like the kids of a kindergarten during storytelling.

"So… That Ruju person… Is a criminal, right?" Emi advanced.

"Technically speaking… Yes. But do not judge her for this… Every Kaosu is extremely proud of the path he/her chooses." The cobalt storyteller stated… His mind wandering for an instance at his own life mission. "I sincerely think her skills will come in handy against the enemy…" He then assumed a sly look and muttered to Maiti: "… And besides, her presence alone will definitely keep the males' mood high, don't you think?"

Maiti couldn't help but chuckle at such appropriate remark. Sonikku resumed his seriousness.

"Ok, let's not waste anymore time… We still need some other recruits." He thought about this for a moment, then added: "Well, to tell the truth, what we really need is a whole army of suicidal nutcases but… We can't afford to have such luxury… And we need to leave this city for the end of this week. Time is not on our side." He looked in the direction of his would be apprentice. "Mairusu, go looking for someone else and take Emi with you."

"Yes, Sonikku-san. You can count on me, I won't disappoint you." The kit said, eagerness showed in his features.

Emi just sighed, she would have preferred to remain with the cobalt warrior… Alone, if possible. Within a blink of an eye, Mairusu took the girl's arm and rushed out of the building… He certainly didn't lack of enthusiasm.

* * *

During their quest, the two teenagers exchanged some words… Mainly referred to Sonikku. She would usually say how she found him so fascinating and full of intrigue… He would usually respond affirmatively or with a nod of his head.

In truth… The golden vulpine wasn't really aware of the argument, he was too busy trying not to blush while posing his gaze on her form… He was growing fond to her by the minute and, of course, she didn't notice because of her own crush.

When they arrived in the town's main square, something managed to capture the teens' attention… A crowd gathered around two persons… Two warriors, apparently.

Not without some efforts, both Mairusu and Emi managed to find a way through the rather thick mass of Mobians and get a better look of the two combatants.

One of them was a crocodile, a tall and mean looking reptile with sharp teeth and a katana sword in his hands… Judging by his fighting stance, he was the kind of duelist used to conclude his fights within the first blow. His stature and appearance were intimidating and his eyes denoted his "all business" attitude but also a fair amount of nervousness.

His opponent, on the other hand, was the portrait of statuary calmness.

Both Emi and Mairusu found themselves to be in awe as they got a better look at that unnaturally calm warrior.

He was similar to nothing anyone has ever seen… He didn't resemble a Mobian, nor any other known species…

He was a weird looking guy with a slim body and a round head… A round nose-less head, for the sake of clarity. He had light grey skin and leaf-like pointed, green hair. He wore a full black kimono, black shoes… And black, three-fingered gloves… For his three-fingered clawed hands.

A peculiar creature, indeed. Was he an alien of some kind? Or was he just born different?

Born different… Just like a certain fox.

There that mysterious duelist stood… Immobile and erect, not even in a fighting stance… As if his current opponent wasn't there but somewhere else. His huge eyes were closed.

Was he concentrating?

Did he fall asleep? As many people around him joked…

Suddenly, the crocodile made his move… And the unknown creature's eyes shot open.

After that… No one joked anymore.

It was already over… The crocodile lay on the ground… Drowned in his own blood. Dead.

No one had seen that coming… An attack so sudden and precise. Mairusu's mouth was agape, as well as everyone else's.

The reptile's blood was still dripping from the stranger's dual blades come out from his gloves… His head raised towards the present crowd and collective gasps could be heard.

He had no eyes… Or better, he had eyes… Only, they were fully black… Pure nothingness…

Pure void.

If it is true that the eyes are the windows of the soul… Does he had any?

His stone-like face didn't betray a single emotion, neither satisfaction for his handy work nor hatred towards his latest opponent or the noisy crowd… And since they bet their money over the reptile, he should have had all the reasons to be angry.

Instead, he remained emotionless… Void as his own eyes suggested.

Mairusu's mind was running madly like a jet boosted monster truck. This warrior could have been the perfect asset for their group… He needed to ask him, at least.

The crowd started to disperse, returning to their own lives and affairs. The vulpine, Emi's hand unconsciously in his own (to her sudden blush), took this opportunity to approach the void eyed swordsman.

"E-excuse me?"

The mystery man, or alien, if you will, slowly turned his rotund head, fixing his lifeless gaze over the fox and his clearly intimidated pink friend.

Mairusu had to summon all of his courage in order to avoid an otherwise impending shiver attack. He took a deep breath, trying to ignore his interlocutor's gaze and focus his own in it, at the same time.

"Noble warrior, are you, by any chance, a Kaosu?" He said, timid-less as mobianly possible.

The un-mistakable sound of the two pair of dual blades re-entering the black one's three-fingered gloves… Was all the fox needed for an answer.

Noticing that the attempt of building up a normal two-sided conversation with this guy, was pointless… The kit went straight to the matter.

"We are gathering Kaosu warriors for protecting a village from bandits' assault… Would you please join us? Your abilities would definitely grant us a valuable edge in this battle…"

Both his and Emi's eyes were wide open in anticipation of the other one's answer.

His blank expression didn't change a single bit when he muttered his undeniable reply.

"No."

And then, he just went away, leaving two disappointed teens to collect the pieces of their shattered hopes.

Apparently, none of them noticed that a certain someone has been observing their every move since they left the pub…

A certain, pissed off-able, potty-mouthed, red echidna… Who happened to be interested in their current situation.

Why, you may ask? Because, right now, he was sober enough… To be a fool.

* * *

"Well, this is certainly a surprise…" Said a grinning blue hedgehog.

"As soon I knew that you were here, gathering Kaosu for a suicidal mission, I just had to come and see it personally."

"So… Will you join us… In honor of the old times?" He expectantly asked.

The new comer pondered about it for a few seconds… Then smiled.

"Awww, what the heck… I'm burning for some action!" Answered the lavender cat girl better known as Bureizo za Kyatto…

The third Kaosu.


	4. Bureizo za Kyatto

**"_A Kaosu warrior must be strong willed… Because, in this chaotic world, the strongest souls have the better chance to survive… Although it is not a certainty."_**

**-From "Kaosu Jutsu" (the Kaosu warrior's Code)**

* * *

**3.**

**Bureizo za Kyatto**

* * *

_**Mens Sana in Corpore Sano… **_

_**Healthy mind in a healthy body… The balance between consciousness, instincts and physical form.**_

_**The needed discipline to create the perfect warrior… Or to destroy a living being.**_

_**In order to survive a battle, a warrior needs to be focused and ready… Both mentally and physically… In other words, he needs to exclude all of his emotions.**_

_**That is the problem… How could someone do such thing? How could someone refuse to let undeniably emotions like fear and hatred to blind his judgments and actions?**_

_**There are two known answers for that question:**_

_**1) He becomes a machine… A cold blooded monster with no purpose other than destruction and will to kill…**_

_**2) He finds the necessary determination to pursuit a chosen goal… Knowing that, if he would have to die before its accomplishment, he would have at least tried to do his best… Because, in Life, the Journey is more important than the Arrival… But that's just a personal opinion.**_

_**This possibility is currently known as the Kaosu's way… Which is paradoxical, since Kaosu warriors don't have a pre-written path in front of them… They are supposed to be chaotic, unified with the dominant element of Life, just as their title suggests… And yet, here's this "Kaosu Jutsu" code that contradicts its own statements just for being what it is…**_

_**A book of rules… For Chaos? It sounds ridiculous more than paradoxical… Then again, we could not afford to live our life without a guide… Something to rely ourselves with… Something to believe in…**_

_**In the end… Believing in Chaos (and therefore, in everything and nothing at the same time), is just like any other creeds… A suggested way to live our Life… A possible, yet unproven, truth.**_

_**That's what the Kaosu Order had tried to accomplish over the ages… The finding of the Truth… As an individual's personal experience.**_

_**Free Will, freedom of choice and beliefs… A way to live in this chaotic world, through personal and uninfluenced discoveries.**_

_**An ambitious goal that, unfortunately (or maybe, appropriately), is yet to produce the hoped results… Since total and untainted Arbitrary Freedom seems to be impossible to achieve… Since not each and every one of our decisions are determined by what we want, but rather what others want, what we feel we need to do, or even worse, what our instincts tell us to do…**_

_**We can't escape Chaos nor we can control it… And therefore, we can't possibly be one with the element… But we can still try.**_

_**And that's the whole point, in my opinion, the fact that we have (or should have) the freedom to try… And the Kaosu's way can teach us that.**_

_**And that's when a strong willed soul is truly required… Because, without the necessary determination, we could not even hope to properly live in this chaotic world… **_

_**Unless, of course, you're freaking rich and you're not born in the middle of a conflict… That would be an exception.**_

_**But… Luckily for me… This young girl, is not our case. **_

_**And I shall see why… Right after dealing with the fire.**_

_**Signed: Kaosu fireman: Fangu za Sunaipa.**_

* * *

**Soleanna, the City of Water (the City of Flames), 12 years ago.**

All was burning… A typical scenario in this part of the land. Civil wars born from racial persecutions, used to have that effect on once lively places… As well as everything else.

For this abandoned city, nothing was left other then blood red water, perpetual flames and ashes…

Blazing mountains of fire surrounded the island this city was in… Making it a very beautiful spectacle for the whom lucky enough to see it… From far away.

If you would have been unfortunate enough to be anywhere near this water surrounded Inferno… You would have become part of its spectacle… Permanently…

And screamed your burning lungs out of your chest right before turning into yet another eternal blaze of this beautiful and lethal marvel of fire.

Back in its glorious days, two races used to live in Soleanna. The average Mobian Cats and a sub-species known as… Bakeneko.

A purposely cursed name for a cursed race… In ancient mythology, the Bakeneko used to be a cat-like creature, a monster who could control fire itself. This race had that power… And for that reason, they were feared and hated.

Therefore… A war began. The flames were spread… Along with Death… Until nothing remained other then the flames themselves…

And their current master.

In the middle of its reign, a single figure stood… A blaze among blazes.

She was just a little girl… A young lilac cat girl with feline and bright yellow eyes and long messy hair that almost covered her face… She was no more then 10.

In all of her life, she only knew hatred and despair, solitude and grief… Her flaming servants were the metaphorical and literal vessels of her burning soul.

This is where she used to "live"… When He found her.

For reasons that went beyond my brain capacities… Fangu za Sunaipa was IN that city. He stood there, surrounded by the menacing flames and yet, not threatened at all. It almost seemed as if they were intimidated by his stoical presence…

The cat girl was in front of him… Her eyes were literally burning with rage and yet, consumed by fear… The fear of a child that has been left alone… The last one of her kind… The last Bakeneko.

And also the fear of Life itself… For she had no left strength to live any further… Or so she thought.

The two of them talked to each other… Their words went lost in the un-mistakable burning sound of the fiery mountains. Finally, Fangu offered his hand to the lost girl, muttering something about being strong willed or whatever…

Apparently, that speech managed to convince the lilac feline, who eagerly accepted the stranger's hand. Her infernal reign of Solitude, ended there.

Welcome to Life… Bureizo za Kyatto.

* * *

**Present time.**

"You should have insisted!"

"It would have been pointless, Emi… Did you look at his eyes?"

"Of course I did! How could I ever missed them? But that's not the point… I'm sure he would have accepted if Sonikku-san would have been the one to ask him…"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

The pink hedgehog's mouth stopped suddenly, now aware of its recent aimless running… She pretended to be distracted by other chores before speaking to her fox companion again.

"And by the way…" She began. "Why did you lie to him?"

"Excuse me?" The baffled looking kit replied.

"Yeah… You told him that he would have to fight bandits…" She inquired with a matter-of-factly expression.

Mairusu rolled his big blue eyes in annoyance.

"Ooooh, I'm sure he would have gladly joined our followship if I had told him that we were going to fight Dokuta Egguman and his blasted robotic minions instead of regular nomad bandits!!!" He practically yelled right in the face of the now taken aback girl… Again, Logic turned out to be a strong ace in the boy's sleeve… Along with Sarcasm.

After the initial surprise subsided, anger took its place in the hedgehog's behavior, who turned her back to the vulpine and started walking away… She was clearly offended.

That childish attitude managed to get a good grip of Mairusu's feelings. He didn't want to enrage her… As a matter of fact, that was the last thing he wished. Suddenly immerse in a river of his own guilt, the fox darted towards the fleeing form of the girl, hoping to, somehow, receive her forgiveness.

"EMI, WAIT!!!" He cried, to no avail. "EMI, PLEASE, I'M SORRY!!!" He tried again, with the same result.

She would stubbornly ignore his pleads, just for making him feel more guilty by the minute.

Hell hath no fury over a woman scorned… Truthful words, indeed.

Finally, Mairusu managed to catch up with her. He grabbed her arm without any intensions in letting her go until she would have listened to him… Unfortunately for him, and for his legs, she happened to be quite good in kicking things out of pure annoyingness…

And unfortunately for them both… They ended up in a very familiar alley… With very familiar nasty looking hyenas.

Within a blink of an eye, the two teenagers found themselves surrounded by the aforementioned canines… And by the looks of it, they weren't exactly ecstatic to see her again due to that previous beating they suffered from that cobalt hedgehog.

All the annoyed rage that used to engulf Emi's body not so long before, immediately disappeared… leaving room for a whole different emotion. She cowered herself behind the fox's back, in frighten. Mairusu stood tall on his spot, trying to protect his friend and looking threatening at the same time… Just like a cornered animal would do.

They laughed at him. She was shaking like possessed behind him. He felt her distress… That unnerved him.

Then… They began walking towards them, reducing the distance from their chosen preys… Step after step.

Mairusu's breath shortened and turned heavy… They were going to hurt her… To beat her…

To rape her.

And after that, they were going to kill them.

Sensing the impending danger, his fists clenched and his own fur stood erect… His eye's pupils grew smaller… Like a cornered animal.

His body was now trembling like mad, then he lowered himself on one knee. The nasty hyenas thought they had him overcome by fear…

Huge mistake.

Emi looked down at her would be protector… Confusion found its way in her frightened heart.

Right now, the kit was on all fours… In a feral position… Showing his fangs to the bewildered thugs.

One of them committed the unforgivable error of showing him his knife.

The threat was clarified… Conservative instincts kicked in…

The cornered animal acted as he was meant to.

And the predators became the preys.

* * *

Both Maiti and Biggu looked dumbfounded… Well, Biggu more than usual.

Since this attractive young woman entered the pub, she hadn't stopped chitchatting with Sonikku about old times and stuff like that… It became rather annoying after a while. Maiti took all the courage he could master and approached the blue hedgehog.

"Uhm… Sonikku-san?" He shyly sad, interrupting the friendly dialogue.

"What it is, Maiti?" Sonikku asked, visibly annoyed by the interference.

"Who's this lady?" The armadillo muttered quietly, trying not to be heard from the woman… Her cat ears managed to hear him anyway as she decided to answer him by herself.

"My name is Bureizo za Kyatto and I'm a long time friend and comrade of this irritating blue rodent... That's all you need to know, villager!" The lilac cat said while adopting a sly smirk.

Maiti retreated in shame from the two old friends. Sonikku just grinned.

"It's good to see you haven't changed, Bureizo… And I'll be honored to fight along side with you, once again." He sincerely added.

Bureizo rolled her eyes in fake annoyance.

"Whatever… When are we supposed to leave this dumb city?" She asked.

The older Kaosu thought about it for a minute.

"For the end of this week… When we, hopefully, will have a few more recruits. You're the third one besides a Kaosu thief and myself, by the way."

"So… The odds are against us?" She inquired.

He silently nodded.

"Good. It'll be more fun this way!" She uttered while tightening her fist in midair to exclaim her point… Scaring Maiti and Biggu to death.

Bureizo za Kyatto had her own ways to enjoy Life… Fighting against the odds, was one of those… As Sonikku learned from the last time they fought a war together.

And to beat the holy hell out of blue would be lady-killers who would try to hit on her, was another… As Sonikku learned as well.

He sighed… Apparently, he wasn't her type.

Not enough mysterious… As she put it.

_**Women… There is a guide for Chaos itself… And not a guide for a woman's heart!? What a world…** _He complained within himself.

Then, his Hong Kong express of thoughts crushed because of a certain not anymore drunk echidna who "casually" happened to be around.

"Ehi there, fuckers… And ladies." He corrected himself when noticing the lavender cat. "Perhaps you should go looking for your foxy friend and his pink galore… Or else they're going to be turned into someone else's bitch!" He venomously added.

Sonikku's eyes widened.

"They're in the south-west alley… I suggest you to move, hedgehog." The echidna concluded.

Before any of the present people could do or say anything back… The blue Kaosu rushed out of the building at his trademark speed, leaving the others in its vacuum.

Bureizo's bewildered expression turned to the two villagers.

"What's going on?" She demanded, rather than asked.

The other two just shrugged their shoulders in oblivion… Especially the bigger of the two.

Annoyed by their ignorance, she turned towards the red dreadlocked rodent responsible for the other rodent's current state.

"And just, who are you, other than a potty-mouthed moron?" Again, she demanded.

The echidna turned his cerulean eyes over her… An unhealthy mixture of unjustified hatred and fury towards the whole world was shown in them.

"I'm Nakkuruzu za Echiduna… A Chaosdamned Kaosu warrior." He proclaimed, not hiding his pride.

She wasn't impressed… Not a single bit.

* * *

It has been said… Hell hath no fury over a woman scorned… But, perhaps, what Sonikku found in that no longer black alley, could very well surpass that aforementioned fury.

A certain young, pink hedgehog… Bloodshot eyes consumed by tears… Hugging her trembling knees. Fear and shock permanently printed in her body. She was covered in blood…

Not her own.

A certain vulpine boy… Still like a granite statue… Blank expression. He was covered in blood…

Not his own.

Corpses… Disemboweled, dead corpses.

They're blood, all over.

Sonikku's gaze shown a generous amount of terror… All the wars and conflicts he's been in, couldn't possibly prepare him for such disfiguring view…

The pure, untainted wrath of an unleashed demon.

His green emerald eyes fixed themselves over the suddenly ominous form of that kid… His royal blue kimono was thrashed, revealing the vulpine's body beneath it.

And he could see it… The un-mistakable mark of his curse… Of his own bloodline.

In the midst of the now blood red alley, Sonikku za Hejjihoggu could clearly see them…

The two tails.

Mairusu Paua wasn't a normal fox… He was a legendary creature… A cursed beast… A demon…

A Kitsune.

His clawed paw still held one of those hyenas' pulsing heart… Still pumping some residual blood. An unidentified limb appendage was hanging from his mouth, clenched in his sharp teeth.

The Kitsune acknowledged the older warrior's presence and slowly turned his head towards his direction. His feral eyes gave a calm look at him, at the terrified girl on his right, then at him again.

He opened his mouth, releasing the limb arm from it, then, with an unnaturally calm tone, spoke…

"They threatened us… I just had to defend her." He said, pointing his paw over Emi.

Sonikku managed to recollect himself. He thought about this gruesome situation for a minute.

"Mairusu… Are you aware of what have you done?" He calmly inquired.

The two-tailed vulpine nodded… Then lowered his gaze, clearly ashamed of himself… To say the very least.

"Then… You are our forth Kaosu." The hedgehog suddenly pronounced.

To say that Mairusu was utter bewildered by such unexpected statement, would have been a very huge understatement.

His bloody mouth was agape and his now normal blue eyes were widened.

"But… But why? I'm a monster! A freak of Nature! I shouldn't even exist, in the first place!" He yelled… Painful tears of painful memories beginning to drip from his orbits.

The hedgehog crossed his arms… Not knowing how to respond him. Not even knowing why he made this decision… Was it because he considered the kit's abilities a valuable asset? Was it because, after seeing what he was capable of, he needed to keep a close eye over him? Was it because… Deep down… Sonikku was a more empathic person than he let himself to seem and the boy desperately needed help?

Or was it because the plot needed to go on? Who knew? Not me, for certain…

Only one thing I knew for sure…

They had found the forth Kaosu.


	5. Teirusu

**"_A Kaosu warrior must find a proper balance in his/her own inner Chaos and accept it as an undeniable and permanent part of his/her own being… Because, even in this chaotic world, we cannot afford to live without balance… Or else, we could be consumed by our own Chaos."_**

**-From "Kaosu Jutsu" (the Kaosu warrior's Code)**

* * *

**4.**

**Teirusu**

* * *

_**Living beings are complicated… And simple at the same time. Our mind and soul can be easily influenced since our very birth and lead into a certain way… Then again, we can do things… Horrible things… Without a motivation… Just because we feel like.**_

_**The Balance of Chaos… Quite an interesting argument, indeed. The cluster of elements and endless possibilities of Life could be seen as a balance, per se… An uncontrollable one, that is. Same thing for our twisted souls… Idealistically speaking, our own feelings, emotions, logical thoughts, dreams and instincts… Could very well be seen as personal reflections of this world's Chaos… Our own inner Chaos.**_

_**The one thing that makes us whole… Complete… Our unbalanced Balance. **_

_**One of the Kaosu Jutsu's objectives is to teach people to actually control it… At least a part of it, since total control is as paradoxical as the Ouroboros used to be… The mythological snake creature who devoured itself from its own tail... Leading it to its own demise.**_

_**A Kaosu is meant to be the perfect fighter… A trained warrior that relies on all of his senses and abilities in order to achieve his own goals… Whatever they would be. A fighter not only in battles… But in Life itself.**_

_**That's how a Kaosu is supposed to be… Balanced.**_

_**But… Unfortunately, such perfection never occurred… Because, apparently, Chaos had other plans for us.**_

_**We cannot achieve control of the element… We are part of it… We are chaotic beings. We crave Logic and Rationality… And yet, we can't free ourselves from the feral animal that lies inside ourselves… Our hidden instincts… Our Id.**_

_**The un-mistakable traces of the feral beasts we once were before being gifted with Evolution… And now, we are beasts with a troubled mind.**_

_**Therefore… The most dangerous animals**_

_**Then again, those are just an essential part of our being… Of that aforementioned cluster that makes us whole... That makes us imperfect mortals who can fight for their own ideals and beliefs… Or, at least, try to.**_

_**Beings who can dream… Who can love… Who can hate.**_

_**And then… There are people like this young child I just met… People who's been taught to be nothing more than animals since their very birth… Denying their right to be emotionally whole just like anyone was supposed to be…**_

_**Denying their right to be evolved sapient beings.**_

_**I… Shall correct this wrong… In a way or another. I'm going to teach him about emotions and discipline him as the Kaosu Jutsu suggests… And hopefully, one day, he'll be able to think with his own head and choose a goal of his own.**_

_**As for now… I've got a lot of work to do.**_

_**Anonymous.**_

* * *

**Cocoa Island, 7 years ago.**

Slave marketing used to be the main source of profit for this peculiar tropical paradise… Most of the selling "stuff" used to be war victims from all over the world… Kids, men and women alike… Others just happened to be unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time…

And others were just born in this environment… Like a certain two-tailed fox.

There he stood, beaten and bruised, locked inside a small rusty cage… Visibly starving. His little fragile body was covered with scratches, obviously from several whiplashes, some of them still bleeding. His features were dirty, his fur was also partially burnt… Chaos knew how. Ultimately, his eyes… His big blue, emotionless, almost feral, eyes.

The eyes of a caged animal, indeed.

As far as his damaged mind could remember, he's always being there since he was very little… Since his parents sold him to the Slave Market.

His last name was Paua… He was the last in kin of a very feared and ferocious dynasty… A dynasty of demon foxes, as anyone used to call them…

Ironically enough, he looked too much demonic for his own parents due to his extra appendage… That's why he ended up there, where he's been treated like the demon everybody thought he was.

Where he would have been beaten until he would have sunk in his own blood.

Where he would have been tortured and even molested by his own slavers…

Where everybody would have been giving him names… Until he would have believed it, himself.

Until he would have become… The Demon.

Mairusu Paua grew up in this environment for the first 8 years of his life… And he would have probably die in it… If it wasn't for his savior.

He just came to him, one day, and… Bought him. The cursed two-tailed vulpine officially became his property… His pet, if you will.

Only, this individual didn't want to treat him like the animal he's been forced to become… No, he wanted to treat him as the very scared and traumatized child he, deep down, used to be.

In the beginning, he was as ferocious and savage as any imprisoned animal would be, he tried to disembowel his "owner" a few times, before eventually learning his place as an obedient canine would do…

Then… His own growing as a sapient being and Kaosu warrior, could begin… And all thanks to his savior… To his sensei… To his father…

Shado za Hejjihoggu.

* * *

**Present time.**

Mairusu sat in the bathtub, his surprisingly light body partially covered by water and liquid soap. He stood there, still and immobile, his gaze lost over something not visible but present… In his own mind. His head was lowered and his foxy ears were limp like the ones of a battered animal.

He's been inside the tub for while, the water was now cold but he didn't mind it at all… He didn't feel the cold… He didn't feel anything, for that matter, besides his own grief.

He was a brutal killer… A demon who could not overcome his own blood thirst. He truly wished for his former master to be there with him… Instead, he was long gone Chaos knew were. The fox was on his own… And he feared it.

He did fear himself and what he could do under stress… And now, he had one more reason to be so.

That reason was her.

Her eyes… Her sweet, green eyes… Her shocked and frightened eyes when her gaze met his own after the carnage was consumed.

He did that in front of her and now, she was going to be afraid of him… To call him a monster and to scram away as far as possible from him.

It hurt… So bad.

A sound interrupted his train of grief as a very familiar cobalt blue hedgehog made his way into the bathroom right after knocking on the door and entering without waiting for a permission… He had a bucket filled with hot water that he gingerly poured into the kit's tub.

The sudden change of temperature almost made him gasp but he managed to contain himself. He slowly diverted his absent gaze over the un-required guest.

Sonikku sat on a wood chair besides the tub, he had a very concerned expression… Almost sympathetic. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke.

"Emi is fine… All she needed were a couple of sakè bowls." He pretended to smile, then went serious again. "You saved her… You know that?" He asked.

Mairusu, ever so slowly, nodded. Then he gave a good look at his own features…

"It won't go away…" He suddenly said.

"What?" The hedgehog replied.

"The blood… I tried to clean it… But it's still there…" He fixed his now watery eyes over the hedgehog's green ones. "… It won't go away, no matter what I do… It will always be on me." And a few tears descended through his cheeks.

Sonikku felt extremely bad for him… He couldn't even imagine what this kid's life has been since now. He found himself to be at loss of words.

"Mairusu, I…"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!!! I HATE THAT NAME!!!" He yelled.

The hedgehog was a little taken aback by such outburst, but he could understand him quite well… His name was synonymous with Death and Destruction. That's when an idea came into the older Kaosu's mind.

"If you hate it so much… Then you should just change it, in order to put your past behind you and move on with your life." He calmly uttered.

The 15 years old vulpine looked at him with a genuinely childish and surprised expression… Changing his name was something that he hadn't thought about… Yet, it was simple to obtain.

"A-and… How should I be called?" He timidly enquired.

The cobalt one thought about it for a moment, then answered.

"What about… Teirusu?"

The fox gave a good look at his two tails… A name made after a physical detail… How original. Then again, it actually sounded cool in the fox's opinion.

He smiled… His first, true smile in a while.

"I like it."

Sonikku smiled as well and gently ruffled the boy's hair with his hand.

"Very well… Welcome in the party, Teirusu." He added, in an amused tone.

"Thank you… Sonikku-san." He replied with conviction.

He was alone no more.

* * *

"Where is he?"

"He's cutting some logs over there…"

"Thank you, dear."

"Anything for you, ma'am."

Ruju za Batto certainly had her way with men… When she needed informations, all she had to do was to blink an eye and someone would have tell her even where to find the Sacred Graal itself. She had a gift, no doubt about it.

The info she required, this time at least, happened to be simpler than that… She was looking for some recruit for her party after that charming blue hedgehog politely asked for her help… He was smart… He knew she would definitively have had better chances to find some willing Kaosu for a suicidal mission without a proper paycheck, than him.

She smiled within herself… He was darn right about it. A lot of Kaosu (or would be Kaosu) proposed themselves for such task but she refused them all… She wanted to find some REAL meat to put on the barbecue.

And she apparently found it… In the form of an improvised woodcutter.

She beamed at him, not worrying to hide her gorgeous curves to the new comer, who, strangely enough, didn't look faze at all.

"Well, well, what we have here? I've never heard about a Kaosu lumberjack Order… Must be new or something." She both sweetly and sarcastically said with her smooth and sexy tone.

Her interlocutor just hmpfed in annoyance and resumed his chores.

"No, seriously… Why are you doing this? You don't seem to be that type of loser." She provocatively enquired.

He stopped for a minute, clearly bothered by her comments.

"Perhaps you should just mind your own business, bat… And let a man do what he has to do to pay a Chaosdamned debt!" He retorted angrily.

"Ooooooh…" The bat mocked. "… Sorry if I offended your pride… I just thought that a guy like you wouldn't need to ask for things… He would just take them, like me!" She proudly replied.

He hmpfed again and tried to ignore her… As mobianly possible.

"Say… Would you like to kill a bunch of robots for absolutely nothing in return?" She casually asked.

The male froze on the spot, then slowly turned over the smirking sexy form of the Amazon-like warrior…

A mischievous smile crossed his lips… He was clearly interested, one could say.

"And what is your name, handsome?" Ruju asked, still smirking… She knew what type of guy he was.

And the black, red striped hedgehog officially presented himself.

"I'm Shado… Shado za Hejjihoggu."

The fifth Kaosu.


	6. Shado za Hejjihoggu

**"_A Kaosu warrior's chosen path is not necessary meant to achieve Happiness… Because, in this Chaotic world, a one person's desires aren't fundamental in order to reach a far greater goal."_**

**-From "Kaosu Jutsu" (the Kaosu warrior's Code)**

* * *

**5.**

**Shado za Hejjihoggu**

* * *

_**I… Don't know… If I can go on with this… I feel sick within myself. **_

_**But then again, I must do it… It is the path I chose to follow… And I still want to fulfill it, despite my personal feelings, I must finish what I began…**_

_**I must do it… For his ideal…**_

_**For our ideal!**_

_**I shall not forget what they did to my family… I will claim my revenge upon the cursed human and his soulless minions…**_

_**I shall not fail… May Chaos be with me.**_

_**Signed: Kaosu warrior, Shado za Hejjihoggu.**_

* * *

**Spring Yard Zone, 15 years ago.**

He was tired… Tired and desperate. Pure terror printed in his own blood red eyes. He was a Mobian hedgehog, a unique one for that matter. He had black fur and red striped pointed quills. He was different and so, was his brother… The younger kid he was holding tightly in his arms, trying to protect him from the harshness of this mad world.

They say that Hell is the Nightmare of Reason… Its perfect opposite and nemesis.

War was Hell. A place in which Logic and Rationality had no room and Senseless Destruction was the key word.

War… The outburst of Chaos… The consequence of Mortal's follies and power lusts… Of their inner chaos.

In this case, the result of one man's Madness.

Dokuta Egguman was his name. He was the last human alive… A heavy living testament of the species that once ruled this world… And caused its own demise.

Just like the Ouroboros who ate itself from its own tail.

In the midst of war, Shado and his blue brother were nothing more than invisible victims of a far greater conflict. A conflict that led to the destruction of their home in the Spring Yard Zone… And their parents' death at the lifeless hands of those metallic monsters.

They were alone now… Lost, scared and all alone. Sonikku, the younger of the two, quietly cried on his older brother's chest until he fell asleep. Shado was fighting the urge of crying too. The only reason of their survival was their own unique ability… Both of them were really fast.

Really, really fast.

So fast, actually, that they couldn't be seen by the naked eye... Or robotic eye, in this case.

Only one individual was able to notice them… The very same individual that now stood right in front of the terrified hedgehog boy and his sleeping sibling.

He was a purple creature with a pointed nose, a canvas hat and huge tooth coming down his mouth. He wore a golden kimono… All in all, he looked like a God or a Demon in the middle of the battlefield.

He smiled a warm and reassuring smile at the black hedgehog… Who nodded, somehow trusting this mysterious stranger.

He offered him his hand. Shado accepted it without hesitation, as if already knowing what his chosen path would have been.

For both him and his brother.

* * *

**Present time.**

He was not usually the kind of person who would return in his own decisions. He was usually firm on his answers and votes… Usually.

This time, however, for the first time in years, he found himself in doubt about a recent deal that has been proposed to him… He previously dismissed it as a waste of his precious time, then he started to reflect upon this topic, to really consider it… And before he could help it, he found himself walking towards the pub where those people, in accord with everybody has told him, used to be.

When he entered the poorly made building, a rather peculiar spectacle awaited him…

The place was filled with few people. The humblest looking of them were a red-yellow armadillo and a strange, huge cat with a fishing rod on his shoulder (the use of such item in a city like this, slipped the observer's logic), their expression were visibly awed in both frighten and amazement. On the farthest angle of the room, stood a red echidna with a sinisterly amused face. On the opposite side, two females, a pink hedgehog and a bright white bat were showing very baffled and worried gazes.

Everyone's eyes were focused on the two figures in the middle. They were both hedgehogs, the observer could tell, and very similar, to say the least. One was cobalt blue, his green eyes showed a fair amount of rage and surprise… With a hint of glee. The other was pitch black and red striped, his ruby eyes shown surprise as well but not rage… Only a profound sadness.

They've been staring at each other for quite a while, he could tell. He could also tell the tension was so thick he could easily cut it with one of his dual blades.

The blue one was about to tell something when a sudden orange blur came out of nowhere, tackled to the ground the ebony hedgehog and actually hugged him.

The observer recognized the being as that curious vulpine boy that so timidly approached him earlier… Only, he didn't have his kimono on, so he could clearly see his extra appendage.

Weird.

"Sensei Shado!!!" The boy cried in an overly joyful tone while still embracing his apparent master.

Everyone's gazes were absolutely wide in stupor… Especially the blue hedgehog's ones, along with his mouth.

The watcher could also see the tackled hedgehog's expression very well… At first he was surprised just like everyone if not more, then his face slowly changed into an amused one… Almost a happy one. Apparently, that two-tailed boy meant a lot to him. He returned the embrace and spoke softly into the fox's ear.

"Good to see you again, Mairusu." He muttered in a sincere tone…

"My name is Teirusu, now." He responded while tightening the embrace… It was starting to look awkward.

The black one's eyes fixed once again over the blue one's unreadable face… Sadness was shown.

The boy released the embrace and helped his "sensei" to his feet, blushing a little while doing so… He was a little kid no more, as he realized.

This Mairusu person seemed to be a very emotional individual… The exact opposite of what the watcher used to be. He stood still on the entrance, observing him presenting the black-red hedgehog to all the people inside, including the baffled cobalt rodent.

Those two already knew each other, he could easily tell. From his distance he carefully watched the facial features those two similar hedgehogs wore when they shook hands. He would always recognize an unfinished business when he would see one and these two were no different… he's always been good in noticing others' emotions, a task that he could do easily due to his lack of ones… To his own void.

Finally, someone noticed him… The nasty looking echidna, for the sake of clarity.

And now, all's gazes where on him… On his strange and unique form. It didn't bother him, he was used to it. He would summon such curiosity wherever he would go. He was, after all, the only one of his kind.

"Ehi… You're that Kaosu from before." The vulpine abruptly said. "Have you changed your mind?" He added, his big blue eyes full of young hope.

Had he changed his mind? Good question, indeed.

He nodded. Apparently, he had.

The blue hedgehog gave an odd look at the fox boy, then at the new comer. He smiled, understanding the situation.

He seemed to be smarter than he looked, the new comer could tell. He walked over his direction and stopped a few inches from his bewildering form.

"Hello, noble Kaosu. My name is Sonikku za Hejjihoggu… May I know how to refer to you?" He politely asked while offering his normal 5-fingered hand towards the stranger.

He stared at it with his huge black eyes before answering.

"I'm Void… Just, Void." He said with a surprisingly juvenile voice while putting his own 3-fingered clawed hand into the hedgehog's one and shaking it.

Now, they were 6.


	7. Void

**"_A Kaosu warrior is not allowed to deprive himself of his/her own life… Because, in this chaotic world, even the most miserable among lives deserves a chance to be lived… Through the one's strength and determination."_**

**-From "Kaosu Jutsu" (the Kaosu warrior's Code)**

* * *

**6.**

**Void**

* * *

_**If Suicide is the shortcut of the vile… Then so be it.**_

_**I am a coward… And a hypocrite. The only reason of why I'm still here, is because I can't kill myself… Not just because of what the Kaosu Jutsu states (which has been my Bible so far) but also because of my own condition…**_

_**My unique condition…**_

_**It has been said that even the most miserable among lives deserves a chance… As long as it would have had the strength to go on… A goal to fulfill.**_

_**That is what a Kaosu warrior is all about… Strength and determination over his own chosen paths.**_

_**Death… Shall be my path… **_

_**To fight until my body and emptied soul shall no longer answer… To die in battle, to die with honor…**_

_**Honor… Once again, I'm just a vile hypocrite.**_

_**I am not a Kaosu. I'm just a Lethal Weapon… Who couldn't kill itself.**_

_**Signed: A void soul.**_

* * *

**Ancient Ruins Zone. 100 years ago (?)**

Burn.

All he could hear and feel… Was burn.

Burned was his home.

Burned was his family… His wife and daughter.

Carbonized, they're bodies were.

He tried to save them… He failed… It was far too late.

And now, he was alone… Dead they were.

Dead.

Dead for good.

Forever.

He was on his knees. He cried and yelled. Crimson tears of blood descended from his orbits as he impotently watched the demise of his beloved ones… And he screamed, consumed with despair, sadness and hatred… He hated his own idiocy, his own feebleness. He wasn't with them when that happened… He wasn't with them when They found them.

Those demons… Those monsters…

Those Bakeneko.

He shook in fury and rage… All of his emotions and feelings burned him from the inside. He cried and yelled until nothing was left to be released… Until his own soul became hollow. His once azure eyes were of a dull colorless black, a reflection of his internal void… Because this was what he became… A void shell of a living being, deprived of a reason to live any further…

A void soul who would pretend to be alive… Until Death would have said otherwise.

Or until it would have once again been… Filled.

* * *

**Present time.**

"We shall leave this city by tomorrow. We need to reach Knothole as soon as possible." The blue Kaosu leader proclaimed. Everyone nodded in response.

His eyes stayed a little longer than necessary on the form of his black and red counterpart, who stared at him as well.

An imaginary duel could be seen going on in their respective gazes during those few awkward seconds.

Ruju za Batto silently sighed while crossing her arms. If she had known these two would have been behaving like that, she wouldn't have brought Shado here… She didn't know the reason behind their obvious tension nor she would have asked about… She only knew that their group wouldn't have probably lasted very long if its own members would have threatened each other like that. She scratched the back of her head, trying to hint her awkwardness… A gesture that made almost all the present males to drip saliva from their mouths. She rolled her gorgeous eyes, she usually liked to receive that kind of attention but this was definitely NOT the right moment, she could tell.

Teirusu felt it as well… The tension between the most important person in his life and his newest sensei. He could easily tell those two didn't like each other… Or better, judging by their expressions, it almost seemed as Sonikku had a visceral hate over Shado while the ebony hedgehog seemed just utterly saddened by it. The vulpine started to wonder if the cause was himself… Were they silently battling over his ownership? The sole thought made his own blood run cold. He dismissed it for his mental and physical health. Then his azure gaze diverted towards the beautiful emerald ones of Emi Rozu.

There she stood, kneeled on the ground like a polite geisha… Not voluntarily provocative as Ruju used to be… To the kit's point of view, Emi appeared so pure and untainted… So perfect. He found himself blushing and quickly diverted his gaze away. She noticed him, though. She looked at him with confused emotions as well… She was still afraid of him, or better, she was afraid of the beast that lay within his being, then again, he saved her life acting by instinct… Even feral animals protects the ones they care about, don't they? The mystery of Life and Nature has always been a fascinating topic and it will probably always be for years to come.

She suddenly felt bad for him… She couldn't even imagine what his life has been like… She would make things right with him, that was for sure.

Maiti and Biggu were sitting close to her and noticed the new determination her features were showing… The simpleton armadillo silently wondered what was that all about while the namesake cat… Was just being his oblivious self.

Teirusu's attention was currently focused on the latest acquirement of their party… Void.

He was an experienced fighter and swordsman, no doubt about it… And yet, he looked so young and juvenile… Even his vocal tone suggested that. And what kind of Mobian was he? A new species perhaps? A hybrid? Or maybe some kind of an alien? The vulpine's curiosity towards that person was growing by the minute, one could tell. He admired his attitude and style, that was for sure. One of these days he was going to have a chat with him and, hopefully, getting some answers about his background… Or maybe not.

Void, unlike the others, wasn't sitting. His back was on a far wall, observing the Mobians from a safe distance in order to get a general impression of them. They were all hiding something, he could tell… Just like him, they all had a past that poisoned their own being. Some of them was trying to escape from it… Others had embraced it and modeled their lives after it… And then, there was that echidna. He hadn't been introduced to him, therefore he was not a member of the party and yet… There was definitely more of that rodent that met the eye but Void couldn't quite understand it. Was he bothered by his past or was he just born that way? A good question, indeed.

Nakkuruzu za Echiduna was smirking in unjustified amusement. His cerulean eyes fixed themselves over Sonikku's sitting form. His humongous spiked fists clenched. Then, he started walking in the direction of the cobalt hedgehog and stopped right in front of him…

Sonikku noticed him and calmly stood up from his seat.

"Can I do something for you?" He asked.

The echidna didn't answer, instead, he kept observing him in silent curiosity and hinted eagerness. That behavior slightly unnerved the hedgehog, not understanding the other's intentions… One thing was sure, since he met this, let's say, peculiar individual, he's been feeling utterly bothered… A thing that he did not experience very often.

Noticing his friend's uneasiness, Teirusu immediately darted to his side. Harsh blue eyes were pointed over the red harasser's face. He wasn't going to let this jerk to threaten a person he cared about.

"Why don't you just leave?" He said with a low and menacingly voice.

Nakkuruzu's expression seemed even more amused and his eyes didn't leave the hedgehog's form for an instant… Then, he just walked out of the building without muttering a single word… Or curse.

"What a weirdo…" Ruju said in a joking tone, obtaining the general approval and some genuine chuckle from the others.

She's always been good in lightening people's mood up. That used to be the main reason of why she's been accepted in their group… Besides her undeniably useful abilities as a thief, of course.

After the tension subsided, Sonikku sighed in relief.

"As I was saying… We're leaving tomorrow morning, any objections?" He said while eyeing everybody dead in their eyes… Especially Shado.

No one objected.

Satisfied with such silent answer, the blue hedgehog relaxed… Only to notice someone was missing.

"Wait a minute… Where's Bureizo?" He asked in a reasonably irritated tone.

"Sorry if I'm late, guys!" A certain lilac feline answered while entering the pub. "Ehi, what's up with that echidna I just met outside…" Bureizo abruptly interrupted her speech once her golden cat-like gaze posed itself over the new comer who quietly stood not so far from where she was.

As a matter of fact, it would be more appropriate to say that her words abruptly froze in her throat as soon as her openly widened eyes saw the bewildering nose-less form of the black eyed Kaosu. She was… Surprised, to say the very least.

She unintentionally began to stare at him, fighting the urge of dropping her jaw in a cartoon-like fashion. Void stared back at her… His reaction was the exact antithesis of her baffled (and baffling) one… At least, exteriorly.

He looked emotionless and yet, extremely perceptive at the same time… As if his profound glare had the ability to see within her own soul… Judging her every move and feeling her every feeling.

For the first time since eons… Void felt a real emotion… An emotion of his own, not someone else's. It was odd and refreshing at the same time, to feel such uncalled sentiment…

Sadness… With just a hint of Hatred.

The un-mistakable voice of Sonikku managed to interrupt such awkward moment and capture both Void and Bureizo's attention. The hedgehog repeated to her what he'd already said to the others. She, however wasn't really listening… Her mind was still on the curious leaf-like haired boy and his ominous, lifeless eyes… And, for an instance, she felt an emotion she grew so accustomed to in her early years of life…

Rage… With just a hint of Fear.

And for the rest of the night, Void's gaze never left the feline's form… Still judging her every move.

* * *

In an unspecified part of the city, a certain red echidna was pondering about the latest events and possible future ones… Then he abruptly made his decision.

He was going to become their seventh Kaosu whether they liked it or not…

And that was FUCKING final!


	8. Nakkurusu za Echiduna

**"_A Kaosu warrior should not be driven by his personal feelings during a battle… Because, in this chaotic world, the struggle for survival requires a fair amount of temper… And emotional distance."_**

**-From "Kaosu Jutsu" (the Kaosu warrior's Code)**

* * *

**7.**

**Nakkuruzu za Echiduna**

* * *

_**After exposing the undeniable paradoxes and idiosyncrasies the Kaosu Jutsu is engulfed in… One more question comes spontaneous…**_

_**Can anyone be a Kaosu warrior?**_

_**And the answer is yes… And no. It is true that being a Kaosu is about the courageous attempt of following and trying to achieve our chosen life's goals… To be free in the Chaos of existence… But it is also true that an individual usually has to fight for his/her own purposes… And not anybody is capable of doing it.**_

_**Even the strongest of the warriors could fall like a pitiful leaf during Autumn if not enough strong willed and mentally open. That is one more element that justifies the existence of a series of rules for this discipline…**_

_**A book of rather freely interpreting rules… More suggestions than rules but useful none the less… If not misunderstood.**_

_**Then again, what would possibly be the rightful way to interpret such rules? If there is one, that is... Which could very well be not the case, for what I know.**_

_**Still… Discipline is important, no, fundamental, for becoming a warrior… And that's why not anybody can be one… **_

_**You need to be trained, first… Or is it?**_

_**Perhaps, this individual can be the proverbial exception that confirms the rule…**_

_**Or maybe he's just a random assclown… Only time will tell.**_

_**Anonymous.**_

* * *

**Station Square. Earlier this week.**

A very drunk and pissed off echidna lay on the ground of some forgotten bum's alley, trying not to drown in his own vomit. He was bothered, to say the very least, by that hedgehog's words.

He said he was going to defend those worthless farmers' village from Dokuta Egguman's troops… The fucker. That was suicide, even the echidna could tell… It was a totally idiotic and illogical thing to do, to risk your life for… Those filthy, stinky, pathetic villagers.

He despised farmers with a passion that went beyond the common boundaries of hatred… It was something deeper and more painful than anybody could ever imagine or guess… They were the lowest scumbags on Earth and yet, that Kaosu was going to put his own life on the line for protecting them…

THEM!!!

Not some rich and wealthy lord… Not some king or queen… Them! The poor proletarian peasants no one would ever care about…

The sewer's rats of this society caught in the middle of a conflict that didn't belong to them.

The invisible victims of war and famine.

And thus, Nakkuruzu cried.

It was going to happen again… The screams of terror. The pleads for mercy. The blood and the dead. He couldn't allow that to happen… Not now, not ever.

Not anymore.

Slowly, Nakkuruzu raised from his discomforted position and managed to find a proper balance despite his condition. He exited the dark alley only to be stopped by a strange cloaked individual with a hood that covered his head.

"Who the fuck are you!?" The echidna "asked".

The hooded one's unique gaze fixed itself over the clearly agitated rodent and with a reassuring voice, began to talk.

"Say… Would you like to be a Kaosu warrior?"

* * *

**Present time.**

The followship has left the big city rather early in the morning, as Sonikku stated they needed to arrive to the village as soon as mobianly possible because, after this day, they would have only had 1 week before the impending attack.

Emi, Maiti and Biggu were staying ahead of everyone, leading the group to their village… Eagerness and un-mistakable shards of hope could be easily read in their smiling gazes and shining eyes… At least the first two of them. Biggu's mind was focused on other more urgent matters like how he was going to fish during wartime or if the noise of metal steps was going to keep him awaken at night… And other pointless things that didn't really deserve anymore space on this page.

Right behind them, were the 6 chosen Kaosu for this dangerous task:

Sonikku za Hejjihoggu, unquestioned leader of the group stood proudly on the team's head, his mind already pondering about possible strategies to adopt against the metallic menace… With just some minor deviations over a certain black, red striped individual he had the "pleasure" to re-encounter.

Right behind him, Bureizo za Kyatto and Ruju za Batto were lovably discussing about their battle experiences, corpses' collections, favorite brutal finishing moves and other girly stuff. During this carefree chitchat, the lilac feline would occasionally turn her head over her back and fix her golden eyes on the mysterious black eyed warrior that joined their company as its latest member… The emotions that would be showed in those eyes were so many that they almost nullified themselves, leaving the cat's mind… In a void. She'd never felt so scared and confused yet, so angry and irate towards anybody… Not even towards her savior, who dared to challenge the mighty flames in order to rescue her. When he would look over her, she would just turn her head again and pretend nothing happened… But she could not fool her current chatting companion, who smirked within her overly attractive self.

Shado za Hejjihoggu was walking side by side with his former pupil, Mairusu Paua, now forever known as Teirusu. The kit was still ecstatic about the black hedgehog's sudden reappearance and the fact that he joined this followship, just made his day. He was overly excited with the prospective of fighting along side his sensei and (let's face it) surrogate big brother. He was eager to show him his progresses as a Kaosu and overall just happy to see him again. The content expression of the vulpine boy was almost childish, such was his genuine happiness… All the grieves and painful memories he'd recently endured were magically gone. There were so many things he wanted to discuss with him, he didn't stop talking for a single second since the journey began.

Shado looked fairly exasperated yet, patient at the same time, he could not blame the boy for being a little too much communicative… He knew first hand what he's been forced to go through all his young life and it pained him the fact that he's not been able to completely heal his soul… Yes, Shado also knew about his feral side, the regressive process made possible by a whole life of punishments and abuses. He has grown really attached to the kid, even though he never truly expressed it due to his emotional composure. Teirusu was like a brother to him… A brother.

The hedgehog's gaze fixed itself over the other cobalt one a little ahead from where he was. Once again, the all too familiar feeling of sadness took control of his heart, making it bleed. His entire life has been engulfed with guilt due to his actions… To what he did to his real brother no longer than 10 years before… And to what he unconsciously did to Teirusu. He made him his substitute brother. He felt lower than ever because of that. He would have cried if he could have remembered how to do it… Then again, he would not regret his actions. He was a Kaosu with a precise goal and he needed to overcome his own weaknesses in order to succeed.

But still… It was not easy.

Not. At. All.

Noticing his "big brother" and role model's distraction, Teirusu suddenly stopped his relentless talking, took a deep breath, and finally decided to ask him about a certain topic that has been bothering him for a while, now.

"Oni-chan (big brother), what happened between you and Sonikku?"

Shado's reaction to this delicate question went visibly unnoticed, his constantly stoned expression didn't betray any kind of emotion other than his usual angry one… Mentally speaking though, it was a whole different story. He imagined himself to be squashed by a giant human feet the very same moment he heard the vulpine's enquiring. He fixed his blood gaze over the demanding fox and answered.

"Nothing…"

Teirusu wasn't convinced, that kind of rushed answer wouldn't even fool the dumbest being on Earth… Not even Biggu, for that matter. He decided to drop the topic for the time being, it was pretty clear his "oni-chan" didn't want to discuss about that seemingly displeasing argument. He let out a soft sigh and narrowed his eyes in annoyance, being careful not to be spotted by the other one, of course. He then turned his head backwards and noticed the latest acquirement of their party staring right at him with his ominous empty eyes.

Void wasn't a very social individual, he's been a loner for the majority of his life, a thing he had in common with Shado, as he could guess by observing his ways to act in a public environment. The green haired Kaosu was behind everybody, purposely isolating himself from the rest of the group… From any kind of possible emotional contact that could drive him into unbearable pain. He was so used to his own lack of emotions, to his own namesake emptiness, that the simple experience of a sentiment could hurt him in unimaginable ways… It could burn him from the inside… Just like They burned.

That's why he limited himself into observing others' feelings through their body languages and facial features, from a safe distance so he could not have been involved in their businesses… So he could not actually feel them.

What he, however, could not avoid was those others' curiosity over his unique form. Right now, the two-tailed fox boy known as Teirusu was staring at him, he probably figured out he's been watched for all this time, Void could say. His big blue eyes were still full of sheer and genuine curiosity but there was also something more… The boy admired him, that was obvious… And his big brother had one or two secrets he didn't know about. Calmly, Void diverted his gaze from the fox, only to once again met Bureizo's one from a little ahead. And again, she hastily turned it away. For once, Void had some curiosity of his own towards another being… This cat warrior lady, who's more than the eye could tell, intrigued him… And for that reason, he was bothered… And pained.

Suddenly, Void stopped dead on his track.

"We've been followed." He said with his juvenile yet, firm voice.

Everybody stopped as well and stared back at him. Sonikku smirked once he found out who's been following their followship… And was now pretending to be casual.

For some unknown reason, Nakkuruzu, the sole proclaimed Kaosu, has been chasing them since they left the city. He was whistling and kicking some random rock in his stoical attempt to seem casual. It was a masterful interpretation, I must say.

His improvised crowd had different reactions over his Happening Play. Some of them seemed rather amused, some other, annoyed and at least a couple of them showed complete indifference… Guess who?

"Let him follow us… Let's see what happens." Said a very entertained blue hedgehog before turning again and re-starting the trip.

* * *

Nakkuruzu continued his pursuit until they all together arrived at the village.

From the high cliff's edge they stood on, the small rural town of Knothole could be seen very well… It was the picture of misery. Just a few small wood huts, a main dirty street that crossed the middle of the cluster and an old looking wood gate that surrounded everything. An almost harvested barley camp was just outside the town and the Mystic Ruins forest was just up ahead.

Maiti's face was full of genuine contentness now that he was finally back at his humble home. He filled his lungs with the land's fresh air and emitted a loud enough whistle for his people to hear.

He was back and he had the Kaosu.

* * *

When they entered the village, however, Maiti didn't exactly receive the kind of welcoming party he was expecting to find… As a matter of fact, no one was on the street, eagerly waiting to shake his hands and compliment him for a job well done… There weren't joyous kids dancing like monkeys around the new comers, there weren't older people smiling at him and improvising a festivity of some kind… There was not a single soul.

"Hmpf… A unique way to greet the people who could save their collective rear ends, isn't it?" A particularly poisoned Ruju suddenly uttered, interrupting the unnerving silence of the freshly ghost town.

At this, Maiti simply snapped. He was embarrassed, to say the very least… And frustrated, too. His group managed to find the only warriors brave (or stupid) enough to protect his people from harm… And what his people did? They just cowered in fear in their little dumb huts for Chaos knew why!

"EHI!!! COME OUT OF YOUR HOUSES!!! I'VE BROUGHT THE KAOSU!!! THEY'RE THE KAOSU, FOR CHAOS'S SAKE!!!" He cried and yelled but to no avail. His frustration grew by the minute… Only to be replaced by desperation.

Emi, on the other hand, being the stubborn girl everyone knew and love, was just angry like a crazed baboon on a fight for territorial supremacy… Not a good sign.

The other were just showing a rather annoyed expression… Farmers can be very ungrateful people, they could tell.

Nakkuruzu, who by now was considered an unofficial member of the group, just smirked… He already had a plan. While everyone were distracted, he just reached the town's emergency bell and ring it unceremoniously.

"THE BOTS ARE COMING!!!" He yelled a few times, obtaining the desired effect and pushing the now scared like hell villagers to run out from their houses in panic.

"AHA!!! You stupid morons! Uuuuh… Look at me, I'm a scared little farmer, please save my life from those ugly robots, oh mighty Kaosu dude…" He mocked while mimicking the morons' frightened facial features.

Everyone laughed after that… Well, anyone who was not a frightened peasant… And Void, of course.

Sonikku smiled over Nakkuruzu's direction, who smiled back. His opinion towards the echidna had drastically changed, he was starting to like him.

"He certainly knows how to treat this people, uh?" Blaze enquired, still chuckling light-heartedly.

"Indeed… He has his utility after all." The cobalt hedgehog stated in a "smart cookie" fashion.

They all laughed a little more… Then, the crowd of peasants divided itself into two halves, allowing an important looking person to pass through it.

She was an orange echidna girl with long dreadlocked quills, big blue eyes, an overall sweet and comprehensive gaze and she was wearing a curious Mayan outfit. She clearly was the chief.

They all stopped laughing and focused their collective gazes on the rather young girl, who's features shown nothing but wisdom.

She spoke.

"My name is Tikaru za Echiduna, the head of this small and humble village… I thank you for your coming, oh noble Kaosu." She politely said while bowing in respect.

They all did so… Except Nakkuruzu.

"Ehi there, Tikaru… It's been a while." He muttered, apparently in a very good mood after his successful joke.

She just sighed.

"Yes… It has… Nakkuruzu, my brother."

The seventh Kaosu.


	9. Kurìmo za Rabitto

**Sun Tzu "The Art of War".**

**Chapter 1: Laying Plans.**

* * *

**8.**

**Kurìmo za Rabitto**

* * *

**7 days before the Barley.**

Strategy is one thing that could make a difference in a war… Even one as desperate as this. Sonikku knew it all too well… If there was something he's been able to learn over the multiple years of his still rather young life, was that a good devised battle plan was a fundamental element in any kind of conflict… Sure, a positive result was not a guarantee because of the unpredictability of Chaos… But as the old saying went: you never know.

Sonikku was a lucky individual… More than he wanted to be. He had lost all the wars he's been part of yet, somehow, he managed to survive them every time, for a reason or another…

He would often think that his life was nothing more than a toy in the hands of a superior Godlike being… He would dismiss the thought immediately after. It was of no use being worried for such topic, he was alive, that was the only thing that mattered… And he was experienced enough to know how a war works.

But that knowledge, of course, would have not been enough… Not this time.

They weren't against a common group of bandits, nor a regular Mobian army… They were against Dokuta Egguman, the human who swore to take over the world with his robotic army. The one who caused the death and / or robotization of thousands… The one that killed his parents.

It burned him from the inside, the simple thought of reliving the tragedy of that night, although he did not have many memories of it, he could still remember the flames… And the screams.

And… Him.

Shado… His brother… Saved him.

He shook his head. It was just too painful, for more than one reason. He couldn't think of him as a brother anymore, because it would have contrasted with his primal goal…

He had to kill Shado for what he'd done to his sensei… And he will do it… As soon as he would have had the chance… Despite what a certain vulpine would have thought about.

The cobalt hedgehog turned his head. Teirusu was still walking behind him, his blue gaze was relaxed and carefree… The genuine gaze of a boy of his age. He seemed rather happy, which was anti-climatic since he was 7 days straight from probable death.

Teirusu had told him about his relationship with Shado, although he conveniently skipped the part related to their encounter, he's been his Kaosu master and surrogate brother.

Brother.

Was he just Sonikku's substitute? Or was it honest brotherly love?

Whatever the truth may have been, nothing could distract him from the fact that, no matter the vulpine's feelings, he was still going to kill his former brother…

He was going to be the one who would crush the boy's happiness for good… And, of course, it bothered him.

He diverted his attention back to the piece of paper he was holding in his hands. It was a rather simple drawn map of the Knothole village and his immediate surroundings.

In order to achieve a significant edge in a war, the full knowledge of the battlefield was fundamental… Too bad, this village was not an impregnable fort (quite the opposite, in truth) and they only had 7 days before the harvesting of the Barley… The chosen date of Dokuta Egguman's arrival.

Knothole's only protection was a metal gate that surrounded all the area… Apparently, the village has been built after that gate. Tikaru explained to him that it was a "memento" of the ancient wars between humans and Mobians. It amazed him how such old relic could still be so darn solid to this very day… It will definitely come in handy if the enemy will choose to attack in mass.

There were other problems, though. Sonikku and the other Kaosu were the only trained warriors and there was not enough time to properly train the inhabitants for the upcoming assault… They were all alone, just like chosen saints for martyrdom.

"A ring for your thoughts." The smooth voice of Ruju za Batto, who's been walking beside him for a while, interrupted his unhealthy pondering.

He turned his head to stare at her hypnotic eyes… Yes, he was looking at her eyes and NOT at her breasts. He was a gentleman, after all.

She was smiling in her sweet way. He smiled back. How could anybody frown in front of such perfect feminine specimen? She was already well applying her role… To light up others' mood.

"I was just wondering…" He began.

"Yes?"

"… What the heck was I thinking when I accepted to take this desperate task!?"

She looked excessively bewildered for a second, before answering.

"Do men actually think!? Wow… That's a shocker!" She laughed quite aloud…

And every man in the world felt the sudden urge to roll his eyes.

"Funny…" The hedgehog muttered before resuming his doing.

From behind the two older Kaosu, young Teirusu was admiring the place… The village was simple and rural, and surrounded by beautiful and untainted nature. It fascinated him the view of such lively simplicity… He'd never had the chance to just admire the majestic spectacle of Nature and its relative livelihood. Currently, he was marveled by the people that lived in this heaven.

They were all humble farmers, with humble huts and humbler expectations… They were just a bunch of nobodies in the eyes of the world and yet… They were persons with their own interesting stories and backgrounds… All individuals that suffered because of other people's conflicts or just famine. They were to be admired for their persistence.

The vulpine's gaze glued itself over the form of his beloved sensei. He was trying to teach to a small group of Mobian, the basics of self-defense. He wasn't having great luck but if there was a thing the fox knew about Shado, was his tenacity. He smiled at him and resisted the urge to call him, he didn't want to cause any disturbance.

He noticed how Sonikku pretended to ignore him… And just sighed.

A little further, Nakkuruzu could be seen teasing another small group of villagers… Biggu and Maiti were in it. Apparently, he was trying to mock Biggu's pitiful attempt of a

soldier-like march, he would occasionally bounce here and there, making faces and exaggerating his every moves like a clown would do… His well done mockery managed to cause everybody to laugh… Especially the small kids that gathered there to watch.

"Who dares laughing at the great Nakkuruzu!!?" He yelled in an obvious joking tone right before starting to chase the children… They would laugh all the time and the echidna with them.

Amazingly enough, the potty-mouthed, short tempered rodent… Was excellent with children. He seemed to be a natural born clown, he was even red, by the way. Teirusu couldn't help but chuckle in amusement while seeing Nakkuruzu being overwhelmed by a bunch of kids, jokingly crying for mercy. The kids conceded him mercy but he had to take each and every one of them on a piggyback ride, in turn.

It is indeed true that no one can judge a person on first impression… In fact, Teirusu's first impression of the echidna has been anything but positive, to say the very least. He was glad he's been proved wrong by Nakkuruzu's recent (surprisingly childish) behavior.

The fox's mind wandered over yesterday's events… When they met Nakkuruzu's sister, Tikaru. It has been a surprise, to say the least, to find his sister here…

Later that same day, Tikaru gave them a short summary of their story.

Both Tikaru and Nakkuruzu were children of farmers… But their parents were killed because of a conflict that had nothing to do with them. They both had been adopted by this village's former chief. Nakkuruzu, however, despised the farmer's life, he wanted to be more than that… That's why he left.

And was soon forgotten by the others… Except his sister, of course.

Knowing about Nakkuruzu's past, made the vulpine feel more sympathy over the former- echidna-now-forced-piggyback-horse-for-life. He couldn't wait for the chance to get acquainted to him.

His face suddenly brightened even more as soon as he posed his azure eyes on the pink female hedgehog of his dreams…

Emi Rozu sat on an old wood chair right out of her hut, she was stitching some vest-like material, he could tell. Tikaru sat beside her, occasionally chitchatting with her and laughing at the red clown's expenses. The older echidna was her best friend and, apparently, the closest thing to a mother she has ever had.

Emi Rozu was a war orphan… Just like Tikaru and Nakkuruzu used to be… Just like most of the children of this troubled time, used to be. She and Maiti grew up together in this village, they were like brother and sister… Therefore, Maiti would become overprotective towards her. Luckily, their unofficial "mother" has been able to guarantee her personal emancipation over the years.

Teirusu called her name in a greeting manner. She immediately took off from her seat and entered her home in a rush, bringing the vest with her.

Needless to say, the two-tailed vulpine was baffled by her reaction, at first… Then he just realized she had all the rights to be afraid of him. He somehow, managed to forget about his condition over the past couple of days… But now, it was deadly clear once again. His uncontrolled actions scarred her mind. He was a beast… A demon who's only purpose is to kill his enemies…

Fine.

He was going to do that… Against Dokuta Egguman's minions. He was a Kaosu, after all, war was his path… Even though, it was not a chosen path, but let's face it! How many times in our life can we actually choose our own way?

Another flaw in the "Kaosu Jutsu": the choosing of a personal path it is not something one can have for granted… It is a privilege not too many people can aspire.

If Teirusu will be able to survive the impending battle… He'll may be able to live his life the way he wants. Then again, not even this eventuality was a certainty.

Nothing in Life is certain… Neither an individual's emotions nor the result of a war.

The only thing we can do… Is hope.

His current train of thoughts managed to distract him from reality long enough to get himself lost into the beautiful (and ominous) Mystic Ruins' forest… There was no sign of both Ruju and Sonikku.

"Damn… Where did they go?"

He began looking for them, only to eventually come across a gorgeous daisies' field. Marveled by such genuine beauty, the kit's most hidden and childish instincts kicked in and he found himself bathing into the flowers like a dog… He was a canine, so the comparison fits.

After a few moments of fun, he relaxed and stood lain on his back, admiring the trees and almost napping… Until the acute noise of girlish giggles startled him.

He snapped out of his trance and stood erect on his now sitting position in order to notice the source of the aforementioned giggles. He had no difficulties whatsoever in finding it…

She was just a few meters from him… With a few daisies in her hands. The giggles had stopped abruptly.

She was a very young rabbit child, several years younger than the teen vulpine. She wore an orange kimono that fitted well with the tan color of her fur. She had big, long ears that went down her head from the back… And, by the looks of her innocent brown eyes, she was rather scared.

Both fox and rabbit stood still in their positions for a few minutes, staring at each other like predator and prey right before the inevitable chase… Perhaps it was that kind of instinct that kicked in when the bunny girl started to run towards the opposite direction and the two-tailed fox boy immediately darted in hot pursuit… Almost on fours.

She was pretty fast, being a rabbit and all, but Teirusu eventually caught up with her and managed to get a firm grip on her smaller arm.

She began to cry.

"NOOOO!!! DON'T EAT ME!!! PLEASE, LET ME GO!!!" She screamed while desperately trying to escape the boy's hold.

The vulpine was genuinely bewildered by her words, why would he even want to eat her? The last time he checked, he was not a cannibal… Well, not on purpose… And NOT on children.

"Ehi! EHI! Calm down… I'm not going to eat you! Why would think that?" He tried to reassure her, apparently not to avail. She continued her unjustified whining.

"LIAR!!! MOM TOLD ME ALL THE FOXES ARE BAD! THEY EAT RABBITS LIKE ME!!!"

And now, anything was sadly clear. The transplantation of an age-old fear into a naïve young girl. Yes… It was true that feral foxes used to eat feral bunnies due to Mother Nature's doing… But that was before the dawn of evolution and the birth of the Mobian race.

Still… Certain fears are hard to die.

Teirusu's expression softened dramatically. He felt genuine sadness and sympathy over the naïve young girl.

He sat on the ground while still holding her arm, assuming the most reassuring expression he could master… That seemed to work a little bit as the rabbit, probably out of tiredness than anything else, calmed herself down.

"I won't eat you." He simply said, she still wasn't convinced, he could tell. "Are you from the village?" He then asked, wisely trying to change the topic.

She timidly nodded in response.

"What is your name?" He asked.

She hesitated for a few moments before responding.

"K-Kurìmo… Kurìmo za Rabitto."

"A beautiful name." He smiled. "I'm Teirusu and I'm one of the seven Kaosu that are going to protect your village from all those mean robots."

She was finally convinced. He let her arm go. She didn't run away.

They talked for a few minutes under the shade of the old sequoias. Kurìmo was an angelic little kid, Teirusu could say, cute and innocent, selfless and kind… Once you get to know her better.

Again, first impressions are often wrong.

She told him her story… She lived in the village since her birth with her mother, Vanira. Her father was unknown… Probably a bandit.

Being older and more experienced, the fox had no problems in reading through the words of the younger bunny… And what his mind devised from her simple story, managed to send shivers through all his spine.

Her mother has been raped… And she was the result.

An angel… Born in Hell.

After several minutes of acquainting, the little kid was enough in confidence with the fox to even call him "oni-chan". Quite a progress, I must say.

When the sun finally set, the two friends departed.

"Bye, Teirusu-san!" She joyously said right before running away while still giggling.

He saluted her as well… Then he just punched himself in the stomach.

His eyes were now showing something different from the kindness he's been masking himself with since he met her… They were showing…

Hunger.

Feral hunger.

"No… No… I can't let this… Happen."

Old fears die hard… As well as instincts.

It is such a tragedy… To be sapient animals.


	10. Enma Dai O

**Sun Tzu "The Art of War"**

**Chapter 2: Waging War**

* * *

**9.**

**Enma Dai-O**

* * *

_**A filthy smell engulfed the place as the twisted and decaying carcass stood inside of it.**_

_**It's been several days since its official departure and yet, it's been found only recently… It died painfully… Painfully and unnaturally, as anyone else would in this war spoiled world. **_

_**It was a murder, no doubt about it… The body has been beaten and mauled, slashed and torn into bleeding figments… Then badly stitched for further mockery… Its head was still missing though.**_

_**Despite the grotesque goriness of its condition, it was still possible to determine its gender… It was female… Of what race? That was yet to be found.**_

_**There were people around it… Policemen, reporters or just sadistic curious people… And, of course, me.**_

_**I was there and I saw everything… I saw who killed her… I saw who did it. I've been found hidden inside the closet… Pale like a ghost… Frozen in fear.**_

_**They asked me questions… But I didn't answer any. I knew it was pointless… There was no justice in Earth that could possibly deal with what happened there… No judge, no jury, no executioner… **_

_**Beside me!**_

_**Suddenly, the crippled, headless corpse began coughing blood… Then it raised from its position like a living dead from its tomb… Its contorted and badly stitched body parts were bleeding profusely and seemed to have a life (or a non-life) of their own… **_

_**Its intestines were hanging out of its slashed belly, hissing like snakes… Their flaming eyes fixing on my form. Its feet were where its hands used to be and vice-versa. The rib cage was outside the sternum, it was wearing it like some kind of an armor… It's blood dripping heart was were its head used to be and finally, its spine lay on its shoulders like a fur coat.**_

_**It started burning… Like a damned soul in Hell.**_

_**It "looked" directly at me… It spoke… It said that this was the fate of people like her… Of people like me.**_

_**It said that I was the next in line… That soon I would have been reunited with her…**_

_**In the Inferno, where we all belong.**_

_**That is what my mother said… Before turning into smelly ashes.**_

_**Soon enough, the rest of my kind followed her fate… All of them, except me.**_

_**I realize now… They have been the lucky ones.**_

_**I avenged them by killing their murderers… All the thousands and thousands of them… Until I was left alone… Alone in my domain…**_

_**My blazing domain… My own Inferno.**_

* * *

**6 days before the Barley.**

As the dream ended, a very frantic and agitated cat girl woke up from her assembled bed… She was sweating profusely, her eyes were widened and almost deprived of pupils. She put a hand on her forehead, trying to regain her mind. She descended from her bed, still holding her head…

One of the things that Bureizo za Kyatto had learn to hate over her years of life, was sleeping… Every time she did such fruitless activity, she would dream about her so-called life in Soleanna, before her mysterious savior came in her aid, challenging the flames that would encircle her… She would dream about her mother and the racial persecutions her kind has suffered.

She took a sip out of the water pitcher on her window and took a look on the outside world…

The land was still dark, the blazing torches through all the village were the only source of light in the suffocating yet, somehow, peaceful night. She opened the window, her face was met by a gentle, fresh breeze that almost made her purr.

Now that her mind was intact once again, she calmly recalled the last day's events.

There were only a few days left before the impending attack of Dokuta Egguman's forces, therefore every one was doing his part… Sonikku, Ruju and young Teirusu were busy studying the surroundings in order to devise a proper battle plan. Shado and (amazingly) Nakkuruzu were trying to turn a bunch of fearful peasants into improvised warriors, a rather useless task in the cat's opinion, especially since there was not enough time to do it…

And then, there was Void.

She hadn't seen him for the whole day, not even early this night when everyone else gathered in Tikaru's hut for discussing a very important matter:

The economical factor.

It is a well known fact that wars are not cheap, they are very expensive actually… Even though they were not working for money, there still was the feeding problem… A war against an unspecified number of robotic soldier could very well bring several time to be dealt with… And robots did not need to be fed… Carbon based creatures, on the other hand...

The harvesting of the Barley was out of question, since it was too dangerous and the village didn't have enough money to buy decent food in the city, not for everybody, at least.

So, they were stuck with limited daily rations per day for approximately other 2 weeks.

They desperately needed to end this battle as quick as possible or they would basically be screwed. It was indeed a bad prospect… Dying for starvation.

She tried to dismiss the thought, the last thing she needed was to lose her optimism, then her gaze fell on a quite un-mistakable figure lying in the farthest corner of the village… And he was alone. She grinned… That was the perfect time to confront him.

Within a blink of a feline eye, she was out of her hut.

* * *

It was a warm night, Void could tell.

The stars were clearly visible from the convenient small and grassy hill he sat on.

Stars… Millions of burning masses, probably surrounded by their own planet systems… Perhaps, irradiating with life some of them or neither. The galaxies, the universe were so large, compared to it, the inhabitants of this small world were utterly insignificant and yet… Inside each and everyone of them lay a universe of its own… Galaxies made of emotions, stars made with burning feelings…

Feelings that he was not allowed to experience, because they would hurt him. All he could do was watch them from a security distance… A rather ambiguous activity that some people could misunderstand for a simple perversion… But it was not a lame case of Voyeurism…

Although such concept used to be the basics for most of the human culture's antics…

It was just plain Envy, one of the few things he could still feel… And, of course, it hurt.

A noise startled him. He turned his rotund head to eye the source of this disturbance.

There she was, in front of him, still and erect, the feline Kaosu known as Bureizo za Kyatto. Her golden eyes were showing a preoccupying amount of glee and some unjustified trace of rage, he could easily tell. His gaze, naturally, was the exact antithesis of her own. No visibly emotion was shown… At least, not in the surface.

She smiled a mischievous grin, giving the woolly-headed, black eyed Kaosu, a very good sight of her fangs. He didn't look fazed by such behavior, only curious.

"May I do something for you?" He suddenly spoke with his surprisingly juvenile voice, slightly taking the lavender cat by surprise.

It was the first time she'd ever heard his voice, she was not expecting it to be so… Childish. So distant from this guy's reputation. After subsiding her small bewilderment, she grinned again and answered him with two simple yet, meaningful words…

"I know."

He now seemed a little taken aback… The almost imperceptible movement of some of his facial muscles was a sufficient clue for her.

"Excuse me?" He asked, now more curious than ever.

"I know that you know…" She replied.

"What do I know?"

"You know that I know…"

He was starting to be annoyed by this little game, another thing that could hardly be noticed by the sudden blinking of his empty eyes, other than that, he was still the portrait of emotionlessness.

"Ok… So, what do you know that I know that you know, I know?" Two could play at this game.

"I know that you know what I am…" She began to say. "… And you know that I know who are you…" She fixed her gaze on his, adding the necessary emphasis before concluding. "You are The Void Warrior, better known by my people as… Enma Dai-O, the immortal Lord of Death!" And now, her eyes were literally producing flames.

At the mention of his other name, his body reacted strangely… He felt as if a cold, rusty knife was slowly cutting off his skin, with sadistic pleasure. That is what he felt internally but externally, nothing really changed from his usual distant glare… That managed to irate the cat girl even more.

"You are the one who's been hunting down my people since Chaos knows when! You're the one who wickedly persecuted and killed my kind, almost causing our own extinction! YOU BASTARD!!!" She was on the verge of a spontaneous combustion… He remained glacial. "Your face and form are un-mistakable… You are that demon, aren't you? Well? Say something… SAY SOMETHING, DAMN IT!!!" She practically howled in desperation.

They stood there for a couple of minutes, burning eyes fixed on distant, cold eyes, in absolute silence… Until he answered.

"Yes." He simply said in a "matter of fact" manner. No smart replies, nor excuses, nor emphatic monologues… Just a simple yes, was his answer.

For a moment, Bureizo's flames were about to unleash their wrath over the immortal's body, such was her fury… The emotionless tone he used in the answer seemed so disrespectful in her mind, as if he didn't regret or feel guilty for his actions, not in the slightest…Plus, she was also frustrated by the fact that their conversation wasn't exactly going the way she wanted. She was expecting to cause him a significant reaction when she basically unmasked his infamous past but noooooo… He had to be so superior, so cool, hadn't he?

As if on cue, Void (or Enma, if you want) raised from his sitting position and began walking slowly towards the blazing feline. She was utterly taken aback by this unusual and illogical behavior, didn't he realize the danger he was in?

"STOP RIGHT THERE!!!" She yelled, not bothering to cover the frantic bewilderment in her voice.

He came closer…

"I'm warning you!" She continued.

… And closer…

"W-wait, do not…"

… And closer…

"Please… I don't want to…"

"Burn me?" He finished for her… They were now inexistent nose to nose.

She was left wordless, apparently unable to utter a single noise. Her mouth was agape and her eyes were sinking into his alienating glare.

"You remind me a lot of my wife." He suddenly said, barely cracking a disfiguring and distant half smile.

Confusion found its way in the feline's mind, joining forces with Fear and Stupor.

He then did something she didn't expect… He took her still flaming hand in his own gruesome, 3-fingered one.

Her eyes were in utter shock as they watched Void's hand burning with her o and his apparent lack of reaction, as if he wasn't feeling it at all… As if physical pain meant nothing to him.

"W-what are you doing!?" She muttered with newly re-found words. His gaze never abandoned her own.

"Go on. Let's see if you can kill me, Bakeneko… Because I couldn't."

She hastily retreated her hand from Void's. She was scared out of her mind, he could tell. A thousands of incoherent thoughts were wildly running around in her being but she couldn't quite put them into rational words. All she could do instead, was to slowly step back from his seemingly imposing form… Tiptoeing away, for being more precise. Once far enough, she abruptly turned and ran towards her hut.

She cried her way into sleep.

Void stood still on his spot. His lifeless glare lost in the darkness Bureizo disappeared in. A strange noise came out of his mouth… It sounded like a sigh but I could be wrong. He then sat down again and resumed his sky watching activity for the rest of the night.

As if on cue, a few stars began to fall.


End file.
